


A Different Kind of Mistake

by Stormlyht



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural
Genre: AU - Replacing The French Mistake in Supernatural, Crossover, Drama, F/M, First Time, M/M, Multi, Season 4 BtVS, Season 6 SPN, Threesome, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:05:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 41,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1087760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of going to "our" world in the French Mistake, Dean, Sam and Cas are transported to the very odd world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where vampires turn to dust and can be controlled by electronics in their head.  They must find their way back to their own world, but tangled relationships, high emotions and a bored vampire make focusing hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Kind of Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the [Wincestiel Big Bang Challenge](http://wincestielbb13.livejournal.com/)!
> 
> I had a grand time on this, even though I was plagued by no computer and a broken finger. I hope the characters ring true and the story flows well. Thanks to the mods for such a fantastic challenge, I hope we can have this kind of fun again next year!
> 
> My artists were the amazing [snappapple](http://archiveofourown.org/users/snappapple) and [Sycass](http://syccas.livejournal.com/5674.html)! Thank you both so much, I am so pleased with what you've done for me!
> 
> Beta for this was [Tanzenlicht](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Tanzenlicht), who made me rethink characterizations, made me laugh with comments, and also made me get this thing done! Thank you so much, because without you I'd have had such a mess on my hands. I wish I'd gotten this done sooner so I wouldn't have had to call on your services so late in the game, and I hope I didn't stress you out too much. Any further mistakes are entirely mine.
> 
> Thank you to all the readers, I do this for you, and I hope you enjoy your stay here.

[](http://imgur.com/OCjVm5E)

1 - Dean

Dean frowned at the angel running around Bobby’s house. “What exactly are you doing?” He growled the words in the hopes that Balthazar would take the hint and explain.

He didn’t. Instead, Balthazar rambled on about movies as he doused a clay bowl in blood. Exchanging a look with Sam, Dean held up a hand to try to stop the string of words. As he did, there was a rustle of wings, and Castiel was standing in the room.

“Cas?” Dean looked over at Cas in surprise.

“Cassie?” Balthazar said, finally pausing his frantic movements. “What are you doing here?”

“Things have changed.” Castiel nodded at Balthazar. “Don’t stop what you’re doing yet, but there are things I must discuss with Sam and Dean.”

“Like what Cas?” Dean stood straight and tall, glaring at his friend. Things had been… different lately. Cas had been hiding things from them, like whatever the fuck was going on in his little war, and Dean was often left wondering if Cas gave two shits about him anymore. If Cas would just *tell* them what was going on, he knew they could help.

“Like what needs to be done.” Cas grabbed Dean by the arm and pulled him to the side. “Things are difficult right now, I know, and I understand you aren’t happy. We’ll talk when you get back.” Dean’s brows drew together and he put a hand on Cas’ shoulder, stopping the flow of conversation.

“Cas, you aren’t telling us anything. Things are difficult? Things are always difficult, what makes them different now?”

“I can’t explain right now -” Cas began, but Dean was tired of being put off.

“You can’t, or you won’t Cas?” Dean asked, fingers digging into Cas’ shoulder. Cas looked down at the hand with a frown.

“Dean -” Cas would have said more but Balthazar made a noise in the living room and Cas looked over at him.

“We need to do this Cassie.” Balthazar was looking back at Cas, and Cas nodded his head.

“Look, when you come back,” Cas started again, and he took a step back, shaking Dean’s hand off.

“Cas.” Dean shook his head. “We aren’t going anywhere until we’ve had ourselves a conversation.”

“Actually,” Balthazar said, drawing a symbol on one of Bobby’s windows. “That’s not entirely accurate.”

Sam walked over towards the window and Dean followed with a frown on his face. “What are you doing?” Sam asked as Dean turned to look at Cas.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked.

“I’ve run out of time,” Cas said with a sigh. Dean reached out and grabbed Cas by the scruff of the neck, but he heard Balthazar say, “No!” when he did, and Cas’ eyes got wide.

There was a sucking noise, and a gust of wind that was so strong it knocked Dean onto the ground. Onto the soft ground. The grass covered ground.

Looking up, he tried to make sense of where they now were. Shrubs were around them, a park bench was next to a lamp and in the distance was a large building. The air was hot and muggy, and the crickets sounded way too happy.

“Dammit Dean!” Cas snarled. “Why must you insist on making things worse than they already are?”

 

2 - Sam

Sam looked around with a small frown on his face. Wherever they were it wasn’t remotely near Bobby’s. Cas and Dean were having some sort of argument, but for the moment, Sam was ignoring them in favor of actually getting a handle on their new location.

They appeared to be on college campus, based on the buildings in the background, which was interesting. Sam knew there were no colleges near Bobby’s, but there were palm trees and small shrubs indicating that at the very least they traveled across the country. How far could that spell have sent them?

Taking a few steps to look over the bushes, he saw a man slowly advancing on a young girl, who was walking with a bag over her shoulder down a pathway. He took a step out to ask them where they were when he noticed the man’s face. The forehead was bumpy and bulbous, as though the skull was pressing further out of his skin. Then there was the teeth. Fangs for certain, and a few more jagged teeth in front, but not anything he’d seen before.

Rushing him, Sam tackled the guy and punched him solidly across the face. The man grunted and kicked up, catching Sam under the ribs and forcing him off.

“Dean!” Sam called out, slipping a hand into his pocket and pulling out a knife. It was silver, so stab first, see what happens and go from there.

“Hey,” the girl called, having paused to stare at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t mind us,” Dean said as he left Cas to size up the situation. “We’ll take care of this problem.” He rushed the monster and pushed him into Sam, who had the knife poised to stab. It sliced right into the monster’s chest, and when Sam pushed him off, all he saw was blood. The creature staggered back instead of falling and the wound showed none of the sizzling, burning reaction Sam had hoped for. Okay, that was fine, there weren't a lot of things beheading didn't kill.

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” the girl said.

“Trust them, they’re professionals,” Cas said in what he probably thought were soothing tones. Sam smirked as he dodged another punch and landed a few of his own.

Dean tackled the guy and Sam moved to start cutting off the head. “Stop that!” the creature said. He thrashed around and blood trickled from the wound growing quickly into a river as Sam sliced deeper.

“Obviously not, they stabbed a vampire with a knife and now they’re trying to cut off it’s head with what, a pocket knife?” the girl scoffed.

“Please, we’re not stopping till you’re dead,” Dean said with a growl. Then there was another twist and Dean was flung off.

“I could do that faster,” the girl said, and Sam glanced over at her. She was glaring at Castiel with more ferocity than Sam might expect from such a small blonde person. One hand was in her bag and the other was twitching at her side.

“I doubt that,” Castiel said with a frown.

“Sammy, watch out!” Dean called, and cursing internally, Sam turned to look at the vampire that rushed him, tackled *him* to the ground, and tried to dig his fangs into Sam’s neck. Sam kicked, and then Dean was on top of the vampire, his own knife digging into the back of the vampire’s neck. He used all his strength to press down and Sam got his own knife up. Between the two of them they managed to cut the head off.

What happened next was startling. Suddenly Dean was on top of Sam and there was a lot of dust covering each of them. Eyes wide, Sam stared at his brother. He liked having Dean close like this, flush against his own body, Dean’s breath tickling his face. Sam liked it, but they were brothers, so he wasn’t supposed to. He reached up to brush dust out of his face and he coughed a few times.

“Dean,” he muttered. “What the hell happened?”

“You dusted a vamp,” the girl said. “And it took you forever to do. Who the hell are you?”

“Vampires don’t usually turn to dust,” Dean said, rolling off of Sam and standing up, brushing himself off as he did so. Sam was sad to lose the contact, but he knew better than to say anything. Dean turned and offered a hand to Sam, which he took.

“What do they usually do?” the girl asked, sounding pissy.

“Bleed?” Sam brushed himself off. “A lot?”

“Well, I don’t know where you come from, but in Sunnydale, they turn to dust when you behead them, set them on fire, or stab them in the heart with wood.”

Dean turned to look at Cas. “Cas? Where the hell are we?”

“I don’t know,” Cas said with a frown. “Somewhere else.”

“That’s useful, thank you,” Dean glowered.

“And I repeat, who are you?” the girl said.

“Sorry, I’m Sam, this is Dean, my brother, and Castiel, a friend. You are?” Sam asked as he offered her his hand.

“Buffy. Buffy Summers.”

 

3 - Castiel

Castiel wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be helping Balthazar with God’s weapons. It was just his luck that he was in an alternate reality that had magic, but a different kind of magic than he was used to. After testing his powers for a bit, he could feel them, still strong and angelic, but the rest of the world’s magic was formed differently. That was interesting, perhaps he could still make it back to Balthazar and leave Sam and Dean here to continue to distract Raphael.

“So, Buffy,” Dean said slowly, and Castiel looked over at Dean. “You’re a hunter then?”

“Hunter?” Buffy asked. Castiel looked back over at Buffy, tilting his head to one side. He could see a power to this girl, an energy that wasn’t fully human.

“You know, Hunter, fight monsters, kill demons, that sort of thing,” Dean offered and she crossed her arms.

“I don’t know what you mean by hunter, I’m the Slayer,” she said, and Castiel could *feel* the title as much as hear it. It wasn’t something she had earned, it was something she just was. In the same way that Castiel was an angel.

“Slayer?” Sam asked. “Is that a group of hunters or something?” He lifted his eyebrows and dusted off his shirt.

“No,” Castiel said. He was shaking his head, and all three of them looked over at him. “It is more than a title. I can feel… there is something different about her.”

“Different how?” Dean asked, instantly suspicious. 

“You’re about to feel my fist in your face if you don’t tell me who you are right now,” Buffy said, crossing her arms.

Castiel frowned and shook his head, ignoring the powerhouse of energy for the moment. “I don’t know exactly. My abilities are… different here.” He brought his hand up and flexed his fingers, staring at the way the magic of this world curled around his body. It was alive, so very alive, and was oozing out of everything around them. “I don’t believe angels work the same way here.”

“Angels?” Buffy’s voice was flat. “Like… heavenly beings?”

“That’s right,” Sam nodded. “I think we’ve gotten off to the wrong start here.”

“Yeah, you really have,” Buffy agreed. “I was waiting for that vampire to attack me so I could kill him. I really needed the workout.”

“Workout?” Dean asked, focus going from Cas to the girl again. Cas tried to summon some of his magic and condense it in his hand, but several nearby lights shattered as this world’s energy ate it and exploded. That was… disturbing.

“Yes, workout. Fighting with vampires, wrestling demons.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “Point is, this was my kill, and now it’s not. I’m so not pleased.”

“*Your* kill?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrows. “Yours? You’re like, tiny.”

She rolled her eyes at Dean and Castiel looked up at them. “There is a power that courses through her. I doubt she would be incapable of fighting them off. It is a similar power to what flowed through Sam, but different.” Demon blood, but it didn't mean the same thing here as it had meant for Sam. Demons... weren't the same.

“Demons?” Sam asked, staring at Buffy differently now. He was on guard, and so was Dean.

“I kill demons. What exactly is going on here? Where the hell are you from?”

Castiel walked over to her and stared deeply into her eyes. She stared back and for a time they just looked at each other. Finally, he said, “I am an Angel of the Lord.”

Buffy stared at him and he stared back, and there was silence for quite some time before she suddenly threw out her hand and punched him square across the jaw. Cas moved his head to the side like he had with Dean, so her hand wouldn’t break against his face. It was a strong punch, more powerful than Dean’s had been, and he thought this world probably could use someone like her in it.

“Whatever,” she said. She shook out her hand and flexed her fingers a few times, frown on her face. “If you say so, but one wrong move and I will figure out how to kill you." Buffy poked him in the chest for emphasis and Castiel did not doubt she meant it.

Moving his jaw several times and nodding, Castiel stood up straight again and looked at Sam and Dean. Dean was smirking and Sam looked like he was considering coming over but wasn’t sure what he’d do when he did. 

“Balthazar sent us into a different reality. I’m not sure whose reality, or how this world works exactly, but I believe we will need to find a way back home on our own. This is not where he meant you to go.”

“So, research?” Sam asked. “What was that spell, Cas?”

“It had to do with shifting you away for a brief amount of time. It is of no import. We need to - “

He was interrupted by Buffy then. “Spells? Are you witches?”

“No,” Dean shook his head. “None of us are into that gross stuff.”

“Not all of it’s gross,” Buffy said with a shrug. “Some of it smells like lavender.” There was a pause as everyone looked at Buffy. “What?” she asked, looking at each of them individually. “It does! Willow makes this great protection necklacey thing that smells like lavender.”

“Willow?” Sam asked gently, and Buffy shrugged.

“A friend. Look, if you need to research spells, I know someone who might be able to help you. Sounds like… you’re from a different dimension maybe?”

Sam and Dean looked at Cas, who considered that before nodding. “Yes, I suppose you could say that.”

“Oh, he’s gonna love this.” Buffy grinned and started walking. “Come on, I’ll get you to Giles.”

Dean looked at Sam, who nodded briefly. “It’s not like we’re in danger yet,” Sam said and Dean shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess not.” He looked at Cas and Cas felt a small shiver go through him at that gaze. There was a heat in Dean’s eyes, that went right through Cas’ body and settled in the pit of his stomach. “This conversation isn’t over Cas.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cas said, but he did know. Dean was never satisfied these days, and Cas wasn’t sure he could disappear in this reality, so he had to choose his words very carefully.

“Uh huh.”

“Are you guys coming?” Buffy called, and when they looked over to her, they noticed she was halfway across the field.

“Yeah,” Dean called, and the three of them trudged after her.

 

4 - Buffy

Buffy knocked on Giles’ door, but didn’t wait for an answer before opening it and walking in. She knew he wouldn’t mind. Well, actually, she knew he’d deal, because he would mind. “Giles!” she called out, looking around. “I have something to talk to you about!”

“He’s gone upstairs for a cuppa,” Spike said from the couch, legs dangling off one of the arms.

“Why has he gone *upstairs* for a drink?” Buffy asked, crossing her arms at Spike.

Spike smirked and sat up, looking past her at the three men ambling in. “Who’re they then?”

“None of your business,” she said, turning to look back at the three men, all of whom were gorgeous, and too old for her anyway. Each of them were able to enter the room without an invitation, so she knew they weren’t vampires. They were something else then, probably.

“Buffy?” Giles said, coming down the stairs with a glass in his hand. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh.” Buffy raised her eyebrows. “That’s why you went upstairs. You’re drinking.”

“It’s just *a* drink,” he said, looking past her at the men. “We have company?”

“Yes. Giles, this is Sam, Dean and Castiel.” She motioned to each of them in turn. “They’re from an alternate universe, or something.”

“Really?” Giles pushed his glasses up his nose, excitement in his voice. “How interesting.”

“I knew you’d like that.” Buffy moved to sit at the bar.

“Hello sir,” Sam said. He walked forward and offered Giles his hand. “I’m Sam Winchester. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ah, yes.” Giles took the hand and shook it. “Giles, Rupert Giles, it’s my pleasure.”

“Dean,” Dean waved, and Giles nodded at him. “We’re not even sure how we got here.”

“It was a portal spell,” Castiel said, gravely voice silencing both of the brothers for a moment. His eyes were darting all around the room, and they landed on Spike. Castiel tilted his head to the side as he looked at the vampire.

Spike’s eyes traveled up and down Castiel and he stood, crossing his arms. “Who’re you then?” he asked sarcastically. “Some sort of salesman?”

Castiel glared and stood up as tall as he could. “I am an Angel of the Lord.”

“Really?” Spike snorted. “Bible salesman then?”

“No, really,” Dean said as he turned to look over at Spike, crossing his arms. “He’s an angel.”

“Ooh,” Spike turned rounded to Dean, a small smirk on his face. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offend." He paused and considered that. "Actually, I don’t particularly care if I offend. He don’t much look like an angel to me.”

“Spike,” Buffy sighed and glared at him. “Don’t you have someone else to bother?”

“Nope, I’ve still got nothing better to do than piss you lot off, and that’s what I plan on doing.” He grinned and nodded at them. “In five I get to heat up some blood.”

“Heat up some blood?” Dean turned to Buffy. “What’s that mean?”

“Spike’s a vampire,” Buffy said, but she frowned right after. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?” Spike said, standing tall and glaring. “I’m still a vampire.”

“He can’t hurt anyone though. Some sort of chip in his head,” Buffy explained.

“Why’s he alive?” Dean asked.

“Honestly, I’m not really sure myself,” she sighed.

“Well, as fascinating as I find all of this information I already know,” Giles said, putting his glass of whatever alcohol he was drinking tonight down on the table. “I think I heard something about an alternate universe?”

“Yes,” Sam said, reaching out and putting a hand on his brother, which seemed to set Dean at ease. Buffy watched the two of them with curiosity. The brothers were very close, and not in the way Buffy usually saw siblings be. Not that she was close to very many people who had brothers and sisters, because, come to think of it, none of her friends did.

“Where we’re from,” Sam continued as he focused on Giles. He had that kind of voice that Buffy could easily filter out, as he talked about things that never made much sense to her.

“So, what exactly are hunters?” she asked Dean, and he finally stopped glaring at Spike long enough to look at her.

“Exactly what it sounds like Slayer’s are,” he said. “We’re people who kill vampires, demons, other supernatural creatures.”

“But not angels?” she asked with a glance at Castiel.

“Sometimes we kill angels, but not the good ones. Most angels are dicks.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Buffy said, shaking her head. “Well, Slayers are always female, and we’re called. We don’t get a choice in the matter. One girl in all the land who is imbued with the power to fight monsters.”

“You do this alone?” Dean asked with a frown. “You really don’t look that strong. No offense. It was a good solid thump you gave Cas though.”

“None taken,” she said with a smirk. “Wanna arm wrestle? Then you can tell me if I’m strong or not.”

“Deal,” Dean said with a nod, and the two of them went over to Giles’ table.

She had him down in three seconds and he rubbed at his wrist a little gingerly. “See? I’m not weak.”

“Holy shit girl,” Dean said. “You must work out.”

“Not tonight,” she said wryly, lifting her eyebrows. Dean was easy to talk to, thus far. Buffy kind of liked him.

“I’d apologize, but… ganking vamps is our job too. So not sorry.” Dean shrugged.

“I’ll teach you how to kill them in this reality, okay? You just need some strong wood and a quick stab to the heart and they’re dust. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll adapt.” Buffy liked him way more than she was supposed to, and a part of her didn’t want him to go back home.

 

5 - Spike

“So, you really are an angel?” Spike asked as he went to the kitchen to heat up his blood. Castiel was following him, for some reason, and Spike took the opportunity to look the man over. He was kind of hot, for a scruffy man with an inability to tie a tie.

“Yes.” Castiel frowned at Spike as he followed him. “Do you not believe in God?”

“I’m a vampire, you think I don’t believe in God?” Spike scoffed. He turned on the microwave and watched the novelty mug turn around and around for a moment, one of his little pleasures.

“I don’t know what you believe in,” Castiel said. “Just because you’re a vampire, doesn’t mean you have to believe in God.”

“His crosses burn me, His holy water flays me alive, and just being in His churches makes me shiver, and you think I don’t believe?” Spike shook his head. “Well, I was a little unorthodox in my day, but I believe more as I grow.”

“How old are you?” Castiel asked.

“Couple hundred years now.” Spike nodded and stood up, looking back over at Castiel. “You?”

“I am as old as time.”

“You look good for your age.”

Brows furrowing, Castiel paused. “Am I supposed to reciprocate that compliment on my human vessel?”

“Don’t you *want* to.” Spike smirked and looked at Castiel slyly.

“I don’t.”

“Well you don’t have to be mean,” Spike frowned. He couldn’t decide if he liked the man or didn’t. Castiel was quite blunt, which was a little refreshing actually.

“You are,” Castiel pointed out.

“I’m a vampire, you’re an angel, you’re supposed to be nice.”

“According to whom?” Castiel asked.

“According to everyone nowadays. Actually, being an arse would make more sense, if you’re anything like the angels in the bible. They were all mean smiters, no fun at parties.” Pulling his blood out of the microwave, he asked, “Want some weetabix?” He grabbed the box and crumbled some of the crisps into the blood.

Castiel watched him with a frown. “I don’t eat, and neither should you.”

“Gives it texture, I love it.” Spike lifted the glass and drank a bit from it. “Mmmm, crunchy.”

“Shouldn’t you prefer to eat it the way it comes naturally? No additives?” Castiel asked, and he sounded curious, not turned off or disgusted, which was a nice change.

“It’s pigs blood,” Spike said with a raised eyebrow. “Trust me, additives are an improvement.”

“You can live on animal blood?” Now Castiel was tilting his head to one side, and Spike closed his eyes, imagining the delightful world that included him drinking human blood.

“Yeah, it’s wretched but keeps me alive. I’d like a nice bite of something human though, that’d be just… marvelous.”

“No!” Buffy said from the other room, and Spike opened his eyes with a sigh, looking over the bar long enough to stick his tongue out at her.

“Miss prissy pants won’t let me though.”

“You cannot hunt on your own?”

“That’s the fun part of my life these days,” Spike said, lowering his voice a bit. “I’ve got something in my head, a chip. It makes it so I can’t harm humans. Horrible thing really. I hate it. So no hitting, no biting, no drinking. It’s an awful world I live in these days.”

“Fascinating,” Castiel said, brows drawing together. “How long have you been this way?”

“A few months,” Spike sighed. “A few months and I’m already going crazy. If you’d like to donate sometime,” he smiled, baring his pearly white, straight teeth.

“Spike!” Buffy slammed her hands on the counter. “Stop being creepy at our guest!”

“I’m not being creepy,” Spike argued, looking from Buffy to Castiel. “Am I?”

“I am not…” Castiel trailed off and he shrugged. “I have a high tolerance for strange propositions.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Buffy said with a sigh, moving away.

“Cas,” Dean said. He looked from Cas to Spike, glaring at Spike before turning back to Cas. “I don’t think you should talk to him.”

“Why not?” Cas asked with a frown.

“He’s… he’s a vampire Cas.”

“And?”

Spike smirked and took a hearty sip of his blood. This was amusing to watch. Big, tall and gruff faced was definitely more interested in what angel boy did than he should be. When Spike looked into the other room, he noticed tall with big forehead was watching the exchange himself. Hmmm… Spike thought it interesting the way the looks were going around. These three had a certain amount of baggage he thought he might be able to exploit. Just a little something to brighten up the dull days.

 

6 - Giles

Giles sat with his note pad in his lap, finishing up the symbols Sam had described to him, glancing at the other man every once in a while. Sam seemed like a well educated man with a fairly good head on his shoulders, but there was something a little off in the way he looked at his brother and his friend Castiel. Clearing his throat, Giles saw Sam snap his attention to Giles.

“So you’re saying this was the symbol on the window?” Giles asked as he offered up the sketch he had been drawing.

Sam stared at it and then nodded. “Yes,” Sam nodded. “That’s it exactly. Balthazar drew that with the ingredients he grabbed from Bobby.”

“And this is a complete list of the ingredients he grabbed?” Giles pointed to the, very few, words on the side of the paper.

“Uh huh.” Sam frowned. “I’ve never seen a spell like that before, but I’m not very well versed in Enochian magic.”

“And this is a form of Enochian?” Giles set the paper and his pencil down on the table. “This kind of spell works?”

“As far as I know. I could ask Cas, but he’s been pretty hard to get any kind of answers out of.” Sam sighed and held Giles’ gaze for a time. “Have you ever seen anything use these items here before?”

“No,” Giles shook his head. “No, I have not. I am not a witch, by any means, but I have practiced in the past. I have many dark books spellbooks at my disposal and based on these ingredients… well, I can’t imagine what else might use the bone from a lesser saint.”

“You… were a witch?” Sam asked, and by the careful and cautious way he spoke, Giles knew there was a very large difference between a witch in their world and a witch in his.

“Yes,” Giles said firmly, watching Sam. “I was. I worshiped many different beings, and practiced rites I would never do again. Much of what I did managed to return to haunt me, but I don’t think that being a witch here is the same as being one in your world.”

“Well, those in our world do some pretty nasty things. Like animal sacrifices, using bones from children, needles and maggots kind of magics. You know that sort of thing?”

“It sounds like what our demons do, rather than what our witches do. Not that witches don’t do rituals and use bones in some of their practices.” Giles frowned. “Would you describe all your witches as evil?”

There was a moment of silence before Sam nodded slowly. “I haven’t met one that wasn’t after something selfish or flat out evil.”

“Well, that attitude doesn’t work here. I know a whole coven of witches and every last one of them are good. In fact,” Giles looked down at the list he had in his hand. “I’d like to speak to them about this, do you mind?”

“I think…” Sam looked over to Castiel. “We should ask him first.”

“Very well.” At the moment, Castiel seemed to be talking to Spike while both Buffy and Dean tried to break the two of them apart. For the life of him, Giles couldn’t imagine what an angel would have to say to a vampire.

He stood up and walked over to Castiel. “May I have a moment of your time?” he asked, and Castiel tilted his head to one side for a moment before he nodded. “I wanted to ask about this spell.”

Castiel looked at the writing on the paper and he said, “Mistletoe.”

“Pardon me?” Giles said with a frown.

“There should be mistletoe on the list.”

Looking down, Giles pushed his glasses up his face and then penciled in the other ingredient. “Thank you.”

“I wonder if he remembered to use it. That could explain the way the spell worked. If Balthazar did not use mistletoe then he probably used holly berries.”

“I don’t remember anything green going into the mix,” Dean said.

“Holly berries are red,” Castiel said, and Dean shrugged.

“Or anything red.”

“Except for the lambs blood,” Sam pointed out.

“Fine!” Dean threw up his hands in exasperation. “I wasn’t paying enough attention.”

“So, do you know how to return to your world?” Giles asked quickly, not wanting the conversation to get too far off track.

“No,” Castiel said flatly. “Magic works differently here and I’m uncertain the spell would work backwards even if magic was the same.”

“What does that mean Cas?” Dean asked.

“We are stuck here until Balthazar gets us back out.”

“Or perhaps we might find a way to return you,” Giles said gently. “Would you allow me to use some resources I have in this endeavor? I have many books I can look through, but there are professionals who might also lend a hand.”

“What kind of professionals?” Dean asked cautiously.

“Yes,” Castiel said instantly. “You may use your resources.”

“Thank you,” Giles said. “I’m going to go upstairs to make a phone call.”

“Cas, you can’t just allow strangers to get all in our business.”

“So you don’t want help?” Buffy asked, and Giles smirked as he walked away.

“Of course we want help, but we hardly know you.”

“And *we* hardly know *you*. So, that’s that.” Buffy did like to say things very succinctly.

“Hey, I get that, which is why I understand if you don’t trust us,” Dean said.

“Dean,” Sam said gently. “We've got to let them help. I mean…” there was a trail off and Giles suspected there was some sort of conversation that happened by eyes like Buffy did with Willow and Xander going on.

He was up the stairs and in the privacy of his own bedroom before he picked up the phone. Calling the coven in England was either going to help them immensely or be incredibly useless, but he didn’t see any reason to delay.

 [](http://imgur.com/mnN188h) 

7 - Dean

“Do you think your mother will mind?” Dean asked. He was walking next to Buffy and kept glancing over at her to try to judge her reactions.

“I don’t know. Worst thing she can say is “No, sorry, I still can’t find the bed because the gallery is still in the spare room”,” Buffy said a little snidely and Dean raised his eyebrows at her.

“Wow, tell me how you really feel. What happened?” he grinned.

With a sigh, Buffy shrugged. “I had a rough beginning at college. Came home to see Mom and when I did, my room was full of packing crates. Couldn’t see the floor, or the bed. She was so proud of herself because she hadn’t moved anything, but that didn’t really help. What are you laughing at?” she asked, as Dean tried to cover his snickers with coughing.

“Nothing,” he said with a shake of his head.

She stared at him, then grinned and looked away. “Yeah, I know, I know, but for me it was a big deal. Things just weren’t the same, and I was looking for something familiar, you know?”

“I have a car.” Dean was paying attention to where they were so he could get back to Giles without Buffy in the morning.

“A car?” Dean glanced at Buffy and she was raising her eyebrows.

“Hear me out,” he grinned. “I have this car, and it’s important to me, probably like your bedroom at home. It *is* my home half the time. I’ve slept in it and it’s my way of getting around, but every time I have to put her to the side for a while it’s almost a physical pain, you know? Having to use another car is sacrilege. Nothing is right when I’m not with my baby.” He frowned and looked over at Buffy again. “Did that make sense?”

She raised her eyebrows at him and then nodded. “Yeah,” she said. They were walking up a driveway then. “I get what you’re saying.” She knocked on the door and then pulled out her key, opening the door and walking inside. “Mom?” she called out.

Dean walked in and looked around. The house was nice, well kept and classy. He couldn’t imagine growing up in that kind of house.

“Buffy?” a woman’s voice came from the other room. “Buffy is that you?” When she came around the corner Dean saw perfectly feathered hair framing a face just as elegant as the house.

“Mom, this is Dean,” Buffy said, when the woman paused and raised her eyebrows at Dean. “He’s not from around here.”

“Hello Mrs. Summers,” Dean said, offering her his hand. Mrs. Summers took and shook it carefully, looking between Dean and Buffy. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hello Dean, please call me Joyce,” she said with a slow nod.

Winking at her, Dean gave her a big grin. “Joyce.”

Joyce took her hand back and brought it to fluff at her hair for a bit. Then she turned to Buffy, who was shaking her head in disbelief at Dean. “Buffy, what’s going on? It’s after eleven on a school night.”

“Mom, I’m in college already.” Buffy rolled her eyes at her mother.

“Doesn’t change the time.”

“Man Buffy, you are going to grow up *hot*,” Dean said with a shake of his head. Buffy and Joyce both looked over at him with wide eyes. Dean nodded from Buffy to her mother, and grinned.

“Oh please,” Joyce said, crossing her arms and lightly pulling her robe further closed.

“That’s my *mother*!” Buffy said with a glare.

“So? Anyway, Joyce, I’m here because my brother and I kind of… accidentally got stuck here, and we were looking for a place to crash. I know it’s late, and I’m really sorry to disturb you so late, but we were wondering if maybe we could take up the space on your couch, and maybe the spare bedroom?” He gave his best smile with the biggest eyes, the one that usually won over mothers and single ladies. It could work.

Joyce blushed a bit, and her hand reached to her hair again. “Buffy,” she said, finally looking away from Dean’s smile. “Can I have a word?”

“Sure Mom.” Buffy shook her head at Dean, and motioned to the living room. “Why don’t you have a seat Dean?”

With a nod, Dean walked into the living room and wandered around looking at things for a while. He wondered if Buffy could convince Joyce to let them stay, then he wondered if Joyce knew about Buffy’s Slayer self. He knew Sam had tried to keep friends while being a Hunter back in the beginning, but that hadn’t worked out well for him. How hard was it for Buffy to do the Slayer thing with a mother in tow? Did she hide it? Was it something that had been difficult to deal with? Had their relationship suffered?

“Well, that’s that,” Buffy said, coming into the living room as Dean was looking at the pictures lining the walls and shelves. “She says you two can stay.”

“Great,” Dean said with a smile. Then he motioned to the pictures. “Does she know? About… you know?”

“The Slayer bit?” Buffy asked, and Dean nodded. “Yeah. Came out at the end of my Junior year. It wasn’t a good thing, led to me running away because she couldn’t accept it and I didn’t realize she was human with the ability to say things she didn’t mean. We’re cool now though, and although we’ve had our ups and down’s, she’s here for me.” Buffy smiled. “Come on, let me show you the room.”

Dean followed her up the stairs and looked at all the pictures on the walls. He didn’t think he had even a quarter of that many pictures of him and Sam. What would it be like to have a normal life? Well, Dean wouldn’t know. “Your mother likes pictures.”

“Yeah,” Buffy grinned. “I got really used to being in front of the camera when I was little. I bet you have a ton of pictures of you and Sam when you were little.”

“Naw,” Dean shook his head. “Not so much. It’s fine,” he shrugged. “I have Sam, and that’s better than any picture.”

Buffy paused in the hallway and turned to look at Dean. “So what, you two travel and take care of monsters but you don’t have pictures? Buy a camera already.”

“It’s not like -” Dean started, but Buffy put her hands on her hips.

“Yeah it is. Pictures are about seeing when the people aren’t around. It’s not about having or not having, it’s about memories.” Shaking her head, she motioned to a door. “This is the spare room, bathroom is across the hall. My mother’s room is at the end of the hall and if you touch her I’m going to kill you, got it?”

Dean held up his hands passively. “Hey, I’m not here to hurt anyone, just want to get some sleep.”

“Also good. But that's not all I meant and you know it.” Dean couldn’t help it, his grin got wider and Buffy shivered at him. “Gross. I’m going to stay here tonight too and head out in the morning. I probably won’t see you ‘cause I have class in the morning but I’ll be at Giles’ later tomorrow.”

“Alright. See you then Buffy.” Dean went into the room and took off his jacket, tossing it over a chair. Having a spare room seemed like a luxury he couldn’t imagine anymore. His childhood home had a spare room. It became Sammy’s nursery. Closing the door behind himself, he kicked off his shoes and fell down onto the bed. Until Sammy came to the house, he figured he could claim the bed. He’d get his four hours of sleep, then be ready to deal with whatever happened over the next few days, and with Cas’ strange new behavior.

8 - Sam

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep over Giles’ books, but when Sam opened his eyes in the middle of the night, he felt that familiar crinkle on his cheek that meant he’d done just that. With a groan, he carefully pried himself off the books and then smoothed the pages. The lights were still on and when he looked around, Spike was lying across the couch with a grin on his face, eyes right on Sam. No one else was around.

“Good evening,” Spike said. “I thought you’d sleep the night away.”

“I can’t believe I fell asleep over the books again,” Sam said. He wiped his face free of spit and sleep. “I haven’t done that in a while.” There was something about Spike that disturbed Sam. He wasn’t sure if it was because he wanted to talk to Spike, or because he knew Spike was a vampire yet these people were keeping him alive that was bothering him the most.

“Well Giles’ has the most boring of reference books available, I’ll give you that,” Spike said with a nod. “I know, I’ve had nothing else to do around here but read them. Admittedly there is a telly, so sometimes I watch.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “You watch the television? Seriously?”

“It’s better than reading that shite all the time,” Spike said with a vague motion towards the bookshelves.

“I suppose so.” He didn’t think he should engage Spike. Spike was hated by the very people keeping him alive, but then why did they keep him around? He wasn’t physically dangerous to Sam, so did he manipulate people then?

“So what’s the deal with your brother?” Spike asked, eyebrows waggling suggestively.

Sam sat up straighter and frowned. There was no way Spike was suggesting what Sam was afraid he was suggesting. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, the deal. I’ve seen you looking at him.”

“He’s my brother, we work together all the time, a team. I look at him constantly.” Could Spike have seen what Sam tried so hard to keep secret? If Spike had seen that, already, then did everyone else see it too? What about the people back home? Was Sam an open book?

“That’s not the kind of looking I’m talking about.” Spike licked his lips slowly, gaze focused completely on Sam and Sam glared.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Deny. Deny everything, it was what Sam was good at.

“Oh come on, you aren’t going to try to tell me you don’t want to shag that boy until you’re both sore, are you?” Spike shook his head and laughed lightly.

“Hey!” Sam said, face flushing slightly. “I don’t!” Which was a flat out lie, but lying to himself about this was what Sam lived for these days.

“Right,” Spike’s laugh was louder this time and he shook his head. “You aren’t fooling me you know. I can see it in your eyes, the way you look at him, the way you stare at his arse when he walks away from you. Besides, there’s guilt there too, which doubly means you want him.”

Maybe Spike just saw things no one else did. Sam couldn’t be *that* transparent. Did Spike study people? Did that drive Buffy and her friends nuts?

“He’s my brother,” Sam said firmly. He shook his head and looked away from Spike. Trying to put the books in some sort of order to cover his embarrassment at being caught by a vampire of all things, Sam kept his gaze focused on his hands.

“Right, he’s *just* your brother.” Spike moved so he was on his hands and knees on the couch and he practically crawled over to Sam, ass wiggling in the air as he did so. Sam was watching him out of the corner of his eyes.

“But you want him,” Spike went on, voice low in his throat, making the words sultry. “It eats you up inside that you feel this way. Guilty thoughts running through your head, nasty things you want to say and do, but it’s your brother, and that’s wrong, so you don’t. Don’t say what you want, don’t speak about it or it might make it real. No one gets hurt if you hide it. Except it sits in the pit of your stomach and makes you hot, self loathing mixing with desire and these days you can’t even tell which is the stronger emotion.”

Surprised, Sam looked up at Spike, heart pounding in his chest, hands slightly sweaty. He had tried to tune Spike out, but the words were etched into his skin now, thrumming through his body. Not a single word that Spike had said was wrong, and how could that be? Sam had never spoken about his feelings to anyone, and he thought he’d done a really good job of covering it up over the years.

“How do you know that?” Sam whispered, eyes completely focused on Spike now. A bright blue eye winked at him and the pale face looked a little too pleased.

“The thing is Sammy,” Spike said, and Sam almost corrected him, but Spike just kept talking. “You’ll never know how he feels about you if you don’t say or do something. That would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Going through the rest of your life never knowing? Especially when I know for a fact he watches you too, almost as tenderly as he watches that angel. It’s a different look, but its the same desire.” Then Spike quickly flopped around onto his stomach so all Sam could see was Spike’s bleached blonde hair.

Sam took several deep breaths trying to calm his exuberant heart, which seemed to want to pound loudly in his ears, and returned his focus to the books. His hands were shaking so hard he had to to press them flat on the table in front of him to steady them, but he wasn’t sure where this little conversation left him. Did he say something? *Should* he say something? Spike had to be wrong about the looks. Dean didn’t look at him the same way he looked at Cas. Dean loved Cas, even if Sam hadn't quite figured out whether it was simply that Cas was part of their family or if it was something more. Dean would never act on his feelings for Sam, if he had them at all, so if Sam wanted to know if Dean had those kinds of feelings for him… 

Damn Spike and his way too perceptive words. They’d be bothering him all night now, and Sam was sure that Spike was smirking right now, at him.

 

9 - Castiel

Sam and Dean were well taken care of in this reality, so Castiel went to the nearest park where he could be close to nature to try to use his magic. It shouldn’t be hard to return to his own dimension. Sam and Dean were supposed to be distractions for Raphael, and Cas was meant to be helping Balthazar.

Energy was stronger around nature, that was true in his own world as well, but it was especially true here. Castiel could feel the power, rich and ready, so full of life, and yet so different from his own. There were Heavenly dimensions here, not one Heaven joining them all, and he wondered if there were anything remotely like angels in those dimensions. Was there a version of himself here? It didn’t matter, Castiel didn't have enough time to try and figure it out.

Standing in the middle of a clearing, he held out his hands and closed his eyes. The magic was around him, strong and firm, the inner workings of the universe at his fingers. At home, it would be the energy of souls that Castiel would channel, but here there was nothing like that. Green energy touched his fingers, licked them and swam into his skin. Castiel could feel the hum of it under his flesh, could feel it touching his Grace, and then it flared into life.

“No,” he groaned out as the flare attracted other energy’s. The life force of the park rushed to him, blazed a path along the lines the first energy had taken, seared his body and clung to the angelic power that *was* Castiel. He pulled his hands back, wrapped them around himself and tried to disentangle the magic from his Grace. It wasn’t easy, the magic was practically eating his Grace, gorging itself on it, swelling inside him and leaving him empty.

Castiel cried out in agony, blood seeping from his pores as his body fought the worst infection it had ever come across. His fingers scrambled at his skin, dug into himself and scratched, trying to toss the magic out of himself. There was no way he would survive this, no way he would still be himself.

The pain overcoming his sight, Castiel fell to the ground and reached for his Grace. Pulling it through himself, he burned out the magic of this world in a flare so bright it killed several near by animals, and seared his skin. Collapsing on the ground, Castiel breathed heavily, all of his internal magic depleted, his Grace barely strumming with life, and his body torn and battered. Crawling away from circle, and out towards the open part of the park was almost more than he could stand, and when he passed out finally, he wondered if he would ever recover fully.

 

10 - Willow

“Three men?” Willow asked, eyebrows raised as she looked over at her best friend. Sounded like what had been routine turned out quite interesting. Also sounded like Buffy had a better evening then Willow had had. “They just came out of nowhere?”

“Yep. I was on patrol, there was a snapping sound, and then a moment later, as I was just about to attack the vampire that was following me, they rushed it.” Buffy shook her head. “They were completely freaked out by the fact that it dusted once it’s head was cut off.”

Willow frowned. “Why would that be weird?” she asked. Tucking her books more firmly on her side she watched Buffy closely. When Buffy hadn’t come home the previous night Willow hadn’t even noticed because she had been out with Tara. They’d tried another few spells together, and she was beginning to think she would never be able to control the combined magics the two of them had.

“According to them, where they come from, vampires don’t dust,” Buffy lowered her voice as a class let out and students streamed into the hallway. “They said all they do is bleed a lot. I guess they must burn or bury the bodies. Can you imagine having to deal with all those bodies?” She shivered. “I sure can’t.”

“Yeah, that’d be a pain,” Willow agreed. “I’d probably have really strong arms though,” she said with a little grin. Buffy smiled back at her as she did a brief body builder pose with one arm.

“No, Xander probably would. I can’t imagine you digging a bunch of graves your whole high school lifetime.”

“Well, no,” Willow said. “I wouldn’t. I’d be pro burning. Except,” she considered the smell and shivered. “Ick.”

Laughing, Buffy nodded and continued on down the hall. “So they’re with Giles, trying to figure out how to get back home and I’m stuck here wondering if there’s really any point to going to class today.”

“So,” Willow grinned, her tongue caught between her teeth. She lightly poked Buffy in the side. “Are they cute?”

“What?” Buffy squeaked. She raised her eyebrows and flushed. “They’re much too old for me.”

“Yeah, but are they cute?” Willow pressed, and with a roll of her eyebrows, Buffy nodded.

“They are much hotter than expected. Sam is like a giant or something, though, and he might have prettier hair than me. His brother on the other hand…” Buffy trailed off and grinned. “Major props in the hottie department. Funny, and he seems to be the leader of the group too.”

“Kind of like you?” Willow asked, and then Riley was coming around the corner, a small frown on his face.

“There’s a hottie around I need to dispatch?” he asked, and Buffy shook her head.

“No dispatching, just a couple of visitors. They’re staying at my mom’s for the moment, until they can get a ride home.” She slipped right into his arms and leaned up to kiss him.

Willow did not miss the look that flashed through Riley’s eyes then, nor did she miss the way he held Buffy closer. It was nice, knowing Riley cared enough to be jealous, but if he was going to get jealous already… well, that could get messy.

“Oh,” he said when they broke apart. “A couple of visitors? Where are they from?”

“Out of state,” Buffy said with a shrug and a glance at Willow. Willow caught the look. It was the “We’re not discussing this with anyone outside our group just yet” look.

Nodding, Willow said, “He’s just an old friend of the family. He probably isn’t staying very long.”

“Nope,” Buffy said. “Not long at all. Just needs to make some cash and then get a ride home.”

“You’re just saying that so I won’t think there’s anything to worry about,” Riley said with a nod and Buffy grinned up at him.

“Is it working?” she asked and he shrugged.

“Not sure yet. Can I tell you later?”

“Yep,” Buffy kissed him again. “But just in case you were wondering, you’re still my boy, cute visitors or not.”

He nodded and motioned towards the classroom they were standing outside of. “I’ve got to get in there now. And you two should probably do so as well.”

“Yep,” Willow said, swaying her hips slightly in amusement. It wasn’t like it was her fault they weren’t in their classroom. She wasn’t the one smooching.

Buffy grinned at her and Willow grinned back. No one could ever say their lives were dull.

 

11 - Xander

“But I want you to buy me nice things,” Anya said, and Xander sighed internally. Every one of these conversations led to Xander not being able to make rent or suddenly having way more jewelry in his basement then he was really prepared to deal with.

“Anya, we’ve talked about this,” Xander said, taking her hand as they walked around the edge of the city park. “There’s only so much money I can make, and I can’t buy you nice things with no money.” He wasn’t getting paid for a whole week yet and she knew that.

“No, *you’ve* talked about it. I complain and you tell me how I don’t get anything,” she said. Anya looked away from him and towards the park. “Well that’s not healthy.”

“Of course it’s healthy,” Xander said. “But you’re wrong, we have talked about it. Together. You’ve always been part of our conversations.”

“No, not that Xander, that man lying on the ground over there. I think he’s dying.”

Xander looked to where she was staring and he saw the man as well. Actually mostly what he saw was a crop of black hair and a long beige trench coat. “I don’t recognize him.”

“Let’s see if he’s dead yet,” Anya said, way more excitedly than Xander really appreciated, and she led him over to the body.

“An, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Xander said. He looked around nervously to see if anyone else had noticed the passed out man or not.

“Sure it is. Worst that could happen is he’s a demon, and he doesn’t feel like one.” She let go of Xander’s hand and reached out to turn the man over. “Huh, no, he’s not a demon,” she said, frowning at the bloody face.

There were several scratches across both the face and the arms, blood was covering every inch of his skin, as though it had been doused over him, and his clothes looked burned.

“What happened to him?” Xander asked Anya.

“Magical overuse maybe? It feels that way, but…” she shook her head and looked up at Xander. “He’s breathing, so maybe we should call for an ambulance?”

That was when the man opened his eyes and they were very wide and very bright against all the dried red. “No,” he croaked, then he choked and spit out a mouthful of blood.

“Eew,” Xander said, taking a step back. “Gross.”

“Who are you?” Anya asked.

“My name is Castiel,” he said. “You cannot take me to a hospital. I need to return to Rupert Giles’ house.”

Anya looked up at Xander and he held her gaze in confusion. “Huh?” he asked, and Anya rolled her eyes.

“Right, Giles,” she said. Reaching over, she slipped one of Castiel’s arms over her shoulders. “Come on Xander, let’s get him to Giles.”

“Right,” Xander said. Take the nice injured man to Giles. He could do that. Moving to the other side he helped Anya pick him up. Although he weighed a ton Xander was able to help leverage himself off the ground. “So are you a friend of Buffy’s?”

“Buffy? The girl with the blonde hair that has strength beyond human potential?” Castiel croaked out.

“That’s the one,” Anya said. The two of them started the walk back.

“Yes. No, not exactly.” Castiel coughed a few times and shook his head. “I am not a friend, but she is helping me and my friends return to our reality.”

“Reality travel?” Anya said. Xander thought she sounded way too happy and curious. “How’d you manage that?”

“We opened a portal hoping to gain me some time by shifting the focus from me to my friends. I came with them, unfortunately.” Castiel coughed. “I am an angel.”

“I didn’t ask,” Xander asked.

“I did,” Anya said with a smile. “I was wondering what kind of being he was, and when I asked, he answered. Tested my theory of telepathy.”

“It is not telepathy. You prayed, I heard. I am an angel and can hear prayers, even in this -” but then he was doubling over and spitting out more blood.

“Just stop talking,” Xander said. He lightly patting Castiel on the back. “We’re almost there.”

When they opened the door to Giles’ apartment, a very tall man stood up and practically rushed over to them. “Cas?” he asked, worry lacing every letter of that word.

“Yes,” Castiel muttered. The other man practically pried him out of Xander and Anya’s arms in order to pull him to the couch. The guy was *huge*, and Xander looked over his shoulders and arms jealously. Xander would never be that ripped.

“What the hell happened to you?” the guy asked Cas.

“You’re welcome,” Xander said, and Anya closed the door.

“Magic is much different here,” Castiel said.

“Duh,” Spike’s voice came from the corner of the room. Why was *he* even still here? “Angels don’t work the same way I’d wager.”

“No,” Castiel admitted.

“Spike,” Xander said with a roll of his eyes. “Why are you still here?”

“Because I’m so much fun to have around,” Spike said with a smile, and Xander crossed his arms.

“No, I kind of meant, why are you still alive? I can't believe Buffy hasn't dusted you yet.”

“Xander,” Anya complained. “It’s fine, really. I don’t mind looking at his ripply arms. When are your arms going to get so ripply?” She turned her gaze to Xander.

“I’m working out,” Xander said, face flushing.

“What were you trying to do?” the man asked, and Anya turned back to Spike.

“Who’s this other man?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s Sam. He and his brother Dean came to our world with their friend Cas last night,” Spike said. Xander frowned as he tried to figure out what all the inflections in Spike’s voice could possibly mean. There were an awful lot of them.

“Oh. Hi Sam,” Anya said. “I’m Anya, this is Xander. We found Cas passed out in a park. I think it’s a mixture of magic overuse and possibly a matter of compatibility.”

“What?” Sam asked. He finally looked away from Cas to Anya. “What do you mean? Cas doesn’t use magic. Not…” then he looked down at Cas. “What could you possibly have been doing that would have counted for magical overuse?”

“I was trying to merge this worlds magic with my own. I was testing the boundaries,” Castiel admitted.

“What for?” Xander asked. He was tired of standing, so he came around to the desk and sat down. Anya came over and sat in his lap, which he rather liked. Drama always, but at least his conversation with Anya was over for the moment.

“I was trying to get back home,” Castiel sighed. “But I could not amass enough energy. Instead the magics of this world ate at my own power and tried to devour me.”

“Excuse me?” Sam sat back and stared at his friend. “You tried to do what?”

Castiel went silent, then looked over at Sam with a bit of a frown on his face. “I did not intend to tell you that,” he said.

“You… were trying to go back home? Without me and Dean?” Sam sounded incredibly irritated. Xander couldn’t blame him. How many times had he been left behind? He didn’t like it at all himself.

“Bad move,” Xander said. “Trust me.”

“It was, and it didn’t work anyway,” Castiel growled. “I do not know how to deal with this problem.” He leaned back. “I feel very…” he stopped and closed his eyes.

“You should get washed up you know?” Spike said. “I can show you to the shower, I used to live in it.”

Castiel frowned and looked up at Spike. “You used to reside in the shower?”

“Chained there for weeks,” Spike nodded. “Come on.”

“No.” Sam shook his head. “Cas,” he moved so he was in Castiel’s sight and Xander approved of the tactics. “You tried to leave us!”

“It did not work.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Sam said with an exasperated sigh. “Are we so expendable?”

“It isn’t a matter of expendability. It’s a matter of distraction,” Castiel said. “I wasn’t supposed to come with you, and you have help. You don’t need me here anymore.”

“If you can get back home, why can’t we go with you?” Sam asked.

“I needed you to stay here! I need you to draw Raphael’s attention! I don’t need you to go back yet, but I need to help Balthazar!” Castiel snapped.

“Is it about that key?” Sam asked. Xander tilted his head to one side curiously.

“This is more fun than watching Buffy argue with Spike,” Anya whispered and Xander nodded his head.

“No, it is about the war that I am fighting.”

“You need to talk to us about this war Cas, or we can’t help you.”

“I think he needs to get cleaned up,” Spike said. He moved in between the two of them and helped Cas to his feet. “You two can argue this out when he’s less bloody.”

“Why is this such a big deal to you?” Sam asked, and Spike snarled at him.

“Because it’s blood, damnit!” Spike said. “And all it makes me want to do is start licking, so unless you’d like to watch me doing just that…”

“Ewww,” Xander said, shivering as his mind *went* *there*.

“I don’t know,” Anya said. “That could be hot.”

“I will be right back,” Castiel said as he allowed Spike to help him up. “I… will.”

Sam nodded and Xander watched Spike help Castiel to the bathroom, a mixture of pity and disgust running around his stomach. He turned to Sam then and gave a smile.

“So, explain who you are, to use? We’re a little in the dark here,” Xander said.

 

12 - Anya

By the time Cas and Spike came back out of the bathroom, Anya was bored. Listening to Sam talk just made her want to be a demon again, even more than usual, but she’d begun to have other things in her life to interest her. Namely Xander.

So she was more than ready for the more interesting parts of her life to come back out. Standing up and out of Xander’s lap, she walked right over to Cas and said, “I think I can help you with your magic.”

Cas’ eyes went a bit wide, and Spike snorted at her. “An,” Xander said, and Anya turned towards him. “I don’t think you can.”

“What? Why?” she asked. She lightly stomped one foot. Xander never really seemed to think she could do much of anything.

“He’s from another dimension,” Xander said. “Things work differently where he comes from.”

“I know that,” she said with a shrug. Did he think she was deaf?

“Thanks for your offer,” Sam said, and she turned to him, stumbling just a bit in her heels. She liked them, but sometimes she was a little too clumsy for them. “But I don’t think our magic is anything like yours.”

“Of course it isn’t,” she agreed. “It’s made up of soul energy.”

Sam stared at her with eyes that slowly got wide, and a hand touched her arm. “You know that how?” Cas asked, gravely voice going straight down south and making her hot. She thought she could listen to him talk and just get off on it.

“I can see it. Besides, you look like you were bleeding from your pores, right?” Anya asked, and he nodded. “That’s because our magic was eating at your magic.”

“Yes,” Cas nodded. His hand shook slightly on her arm. “That was what it felt like.”

“The magic here is carnivorous?” Sam asked.

“Not exactly.” Anya glanced at him. “It depends on the kind of magic you have. I traveled between multiple dimensions, alternate realities, all that kind of thing. I have a pretty good idea of what might have gone wrong, and I think I can help him tap into our magic safely.”

“No,” Sam stood. Walking over to them with his arms crossed, Anya could see why Cas liked him. He was hot all pissed off like this. “Not if Cas is just going to leave us when he knows how to get his magic working.”

She looked over at Cas again, who was frowning. “I don’t have that kind of magic at all anymore,” Cas said.

“Doesn’t matter if you have it now. If she can help you, then you’ll have it again and you’re not leaving without us.” Sam glared at Cas. Thinking about things twice, Anya decided she didn’t really want to have sex with Sam. He was too high strung, and bossy. She liked to be the one in charge, as Xander well knew. Anya had Xander trained, and that’s how she liked things.

“I don’t see what the big deal is anyway,” Cas said. “These people will get you two back home, you don’t need me for that.”

“You’re not leaving!” Sam snapped. Anya took a step back. She couldn’t get too far though, because Cas was still holding onto her arm quite firmly. “What’s the big deal in waiting to go with us?”

“I have to help Balthazar!” Cas’ voice raised to match Sams. Anya tried to pry her arm out from Cas’ grip. “He needs me to get the weapons.”

“I thought we had the key to the weapons?” Sam said. Cas snarled and looked away. Anya would have enjoyed the whole conversation much more if her arm wasn’t stuck in Cas’ grip.

“You don’t know anything, you don’t know what’s going on.”

“No,” Anya said. She was struggling now as Cas’ hand was holding her so tightly he was going to leave marks on her. “I don’t think he does, and you know, neither do I. Let me go already, I’m not leaving!”

Cas blinked at her and looked down at where his hand was attached to Anya, then he let go in a rush, his hand returning to his side. “Sorry,” Cas said. He was still looking at her arm. “I was not aware that I was still holding onto you.”

“I could feel that,” Anya said. “Look, this is simple. We don’t have to be around for this argument. Just promise not to run off, and I can help. Right?”

Cas looked at her and then over at Sam. “Would you accept a promise?” he asked. Sam watched him, then watched Anya for a moment. She offered him a small smile and a shrug.

“Yes. If you say the exact words, “I promise not to leave this reality without Sam and Dean Winchester,” then I’ll accept that.” Sam’s arms uncrossed and he held Cas’ gaze.

“I promise not to leave this reality without Sam and Dean Winchester.” Cas’ voice was completely deadpan and Anya nodded her head.

“Look, problem solved. Shall we go?”

“Anya,” Xander said softly. He came over to her and held her gaze for a moment. “Where you going with the nice man in the trench coat?”

“Out onto the patio,” she motioned with a wave of her hand. “Much more energy out there, there’s plants and everything.”

“I think I should come with,” he said, glancing at Cas and then back at her.

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” she said. He was also overly protective. Anya lifted up on her tip toes to kiss him. “I’m not going to have sex with him Xander, don’t worry. And if he’s even remotely related to the heavenly beings I’ve had contact with then he won’t hurt me.”

“*You’ve* had contact with heavenly beings?” Xander raised his eyebrows.

“Is it so hard to believe that heavenly beings might have been interested in me?” she asked, returning his raised eyebrows with some of her own.

“No, it’s just…” he fumbled and she smiled, patting his arm.

“Relax. I worked with one once, that’s all, nothing big.”

“You were a vengeance demon An,” Xander said. “How was it no big?”

“You think people can’t cross lines like that?” she asked.

“You were a vengeance demon?” Cas asked, and when she glanced at him, she saw his head tilt to one side. “What kind of demon is that?”

“I wielded the power of the wish,” she said. “Scorned women would call on me to help them exact revenge on the men who had hurt them, and I did.”

“What are you now then?” Sam asked.

“Human,” she turned and frowned. “And it sucks. But,” glancing at Xander she finished with, “It’s getting better.”

“Thanks,” Xander said dryly.

“So, you can help,” Cas said, and she nodded, taking his hand.

“Let’s go angel,” she said, walking out of Giles’ apartment. “I am ready to teach you some magic.”

 

13 - Dean

Staying at Buffy’s house was something Dean thought he could easily get used to. The bed was comfortable, the shower was amazing, and boy could Joyce cook! The big thing missing from his experience was his brother. Sam had never come over that night, so the first thing Dean was doing was returning to Giles’ place to see about his brother.

The door opened on the second knock and Dean was looking into the large brown eyes of a young man who seemed way too nervous. “Yes?” the boy asked.

“I’m Dean,” Dean said. He raised his eyebrows and glanced past the boy to look in the apartment. “Is my brother Sam still here?”

“Oh.” The door opened then and the boy walked away from it. “Yeah.”

Dean walked in and closed the door behind him. “Sam,” he said with a nod. “Long night?”

“I was working,” Sam said with a shrug. “Sorry, I would have called but…”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Dean looked around the room and his gaze fell on the boy again, who was sitting on a desk with one of the books open in his lap. He glanced back at his brother, who grinned.

“Dean, this is Xander. Xander, my brother Dean,” Sam said. “Xander is a friend of Buffy’s.”

“Right, yeah,” Xander said and he looked up at Dean with a small smile. “I’m just getting caught up on events. Did you see Anya out there?”

Frowning, Dean shook his head. “I didn’t see anyone out there, why?”

“She was going to help the angel with magic stuff,” Xander shrugged. “I didn’t think she was going to stay in the courtyard.”

“We need to talk Dean,” Sam said, and Dean went over to him, sitting down next to Sam.

“About what?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“Cas.” Sam frowned and looked down at the book in his lap.

“What about Cas?” Dean sat up straight.

“He tried to leave us last night.” Sam fidgeted with the pages for a moment while Dean tried to compute that.

“He tried to do what?” Dean finally asked, more irritated with Cas than he thought he’d ever been before. His heart started pounding in his chest and he felt a growl sitting in his throat.

“Don’t worry about it hot stuff,” Spike said from somewhere behind Dean. “I’m sure it wasn’t personal.”

Dean looked up at Spike and the growl found its way out. “Shut up Spike.”

Lifting a mug that said “World’s Best Librarian” on it to his lips, Dean could see Spike’s smirk.

Turning away from Spike and back to Sam, Dean saw an uncertain look flash quickly across Sam’s face. “Why would he try to leave?” he finally asked, and Sam shrugged.

“He said that he needed to help Balthazar. Something about how we were supposed to be a distraction but he wasn’t supposed to have come.” Sam took a deep breath.

“That’s bullshit.” Dean crossed his arms.

“No, actually, that’s good planning,” Spike said, and Dean heard a disgusting smacking sound coming from Spike’s direction. “If you’re the bait, he wouldn’t want to be with you, of course.”

“Look,” Sam said as Dean’s patience started to wear thin. “He’s working with this ex-demon named Anya to try to get his magic back. Something horrible happened to him when he tried to do his spell last night and he was really badly battered up.”

“What happened?” It was disturbing to think that Cas couldn’t control his magic or that something went wrong. Dean hadn’t ever seen Cas actually get harmed from his own powers.

“I don’t really understand it exactly,” Sam said. “It sounded like the magic of this reality kind of… ate Cas’ magic?”

“Ate?” Dean raised his eyebrows.

“Yes?”

“Must have been one hell of a delicious meal.” Spike leaned against the couch, annoyingly close to Dean.

“Why do you say that?” Dean growled, glancing at Spike, who shrugged.

“Because he was tattered to pieces. I helped him clean up, you know, undress, bathe, wash off all the nasty blood.” Spike licked his lips and Dean felt his anger rising through his stomach and into his chest.

“You cleaned him up?” Dean asked. He stood, hands clenching and unclenching as he stared at Spike.

“No one else seemed very interested in doing it,” Spike said slyly. He looked up and into Dean’s eyes through his lashes. Dean wanted to punch him. “And I really had to clean off the blood. It was making it hard for me to concentrate.”

“If it bothered you so much, then you should have walked away,” Dean ground out through his teeth. Cas was none of Spike’s concern, and why hadn’t Sam helped Cas?

Spike shrugged and Sam put a hand over Dean’s fist. “Look, it’s fine. There were… I had to stay here and Cas was fine with Spike.”

Dean snapped his hand out of Sam’s grip as he rounded on his brother. “We are in a strange world, with people who we can’t fully trust, and you leave Cas, *Cas* of all people, alone with a *vampire*? What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that Cas would be fine, he is an angel Dean,” Sam stressed. He stood up and looked down at Dean. Dean hated the fact that his short and little brother grew up to be so tall.

“He was, of course. Castiel is certainly more than capable of taking care of himself,” Spike purred the words out, and Dean forced himself to stay focused on his brother.

“That’s not fair to him, or okay even. *You* should have been helping him.”

“Dean,” Sam said. “You can’t always watch over Cas. He’s an angel, he’s fully capable of handling himself.”

“When he’s been worked over by his magic? When he doesn’t have his Angel Juice or whatever? You think it’s perfectly fine for him to be off with God knows who doing God knows what?” Dean’s anger only got worse as he talked with Sam. Since when did they abandon their friends to strangers when they could help each other out personally? Dean would never have left Cas alone with something he didn’t understand, never.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t molest him, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Spike chuckled.

“Shut up!” Dean snapped, fist raised slightly as he tried to control his anger.

“You do realize he doesn’t need you, right? In fact, truth be told, he seems better off without you at all, Mr. Winchester,” Spike said, blue eyes alight with mischief.

He couldn’t stop it anymore, Dean’s fist collided with Spike’s jaw. Dean walked over to where Spike was now on the ground, laughing as he touched his chin gingerly. “I told you to stay out of this,” Dean snarled.

“I’m not very good at listening to instructions,” Spike said, hopping to his feet with a twist of his body that made Dean unreasonably jealous. “Don’t you see it? How he can handle himself when he’s alone? He’s a general, and you’re a foot soldier.”

“Get out,” Dean hissed. “Or I’ll do worse than punch you.”

“Dean,” Sam started. He put a hand on Dean’s arm, and Dean twisted away from Sam. “You can’t throw him out, it’s daytime.”

“I don’t care.” Dean kept his gaze on Spike. The eyes were a bit distracting, way too close to the color of Cas’ eyes, and seemed to penetrate just as deeply into Dean’s soul.

“Fine then mate,” Spike said. He finally broke the gaze and he searched the room for something.

“Here,” Xander said with a grin on his face, tossing a battered brown blanket at Spike. “Try to die, okay?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Spike glanced at Dean once more, smile full, teeth uncomfortably white. “Your angel knows he’s powerful Dean. He doesn’t need you to tell him that.”

Then he tossed the blanket over his head and walked right out the front door, not bothering to close it behind himself. If Sam hadn’t been holding onto Dean’s arms, Dean knew he’d have been right behind Spike, ripping the blanket off and watching the vampire burn.

Cas was *Dean’s*.

 

14 - Sam

Sam watched Dean’s slight tremble as Spike left the house and he reached out to touch his brother’s arm. “Hey,” he said softly. “Come on.”

Dean didn’t even look at him, just nodded and allowed Sam to drag him off and up the stairs. Sam wanted to find some way to calm his brother down, because any further discussions would be moot if he didn’t managed that bit first. Dean could be stubborn and focused on entirely the wrong thing, so Sam had to bring Dean’s focus back to where it belonged.

Once they were shut up in the upstairs office, Sam turned to face his brother and he held Dean’s gaze. “Look, you have to calm down, okay? I don’t know what’s bothering you so much, but if you kill Spike, you might piss off the only people actively working to help us get home.”

“I doubt any of them would give a shit if I killed Spike,” Dean said. He finally looked up at Sam and frowned. “In fact, most of them seem pretty pissed off with him, I don’t know why he’s still alive.”

“It’s not our call Dean. This isn’t our world, our universe. We have to play by their rules.” Sam tried logic, because sometimes that worked. Not always, and when he saw the stubborn look on his brother’s face, he knew this was not one of those times.

“Since when?” Dean demanded. Crossing his arms, he began to pace around the room. “I mean, if this were *our* universe, we’d have killed Spike and anyone else who was even remotely like him. We would never have allowed Spike to… undress Cas.”

When Dean stopped pacing and stared at Sam again, eyes narrowed and bright with frustration, Sam felt his heart squeeze painfully. He’d been wondering for a while how much Dean cared for Cas. Given how proprietary Dean was being about Cas, Sam thought he knew. Did Dean love Cas? Watching Dean’s hands clench and unclench, the way Dean would randomly bite his lip in frustration, Sam was pretty sure the answer to that was yes. The question now was, did he want to mess with that chemistry? Sam loved Dean, had known since he’d followed Dean out of Stanford, that he had feelings that weren’t considered normal by society for his brother, and he’d always tried to prevent them from showing, but the jealousy he was feeling…

Not really thinking anymore, Sam walked right over to Dean, slipped a hand through the hair at the nape of Dean’s neck and pulled him close for a kiss that Sam had never expected to give his brother. Leaning down enough to get the angle right, he closed his eyes as he felt the warmth and firmness of Dean’s mouth. Dean remained still in Sam’s arms, and then a hand came up to press against Sam’s chest, pushing him away.

“What the hell?” Dean spit out, green eyes wide in shock. “What was that Sammy?”

Heart pounding somewhere in the vicinity of his throat, Sam licked his lips and shook his head. What was he doing? Sam was being stupid. Forget what Spike had said about Dean liking Sam, Sam had known that Dean wouldn’t just kiss him back. As things stood, Dean might disown him for what he’d just done.

“Answer me Sam,” Dean glared. “What was that?”

Clearing his throat, Sam shook his head. He couldn’t look at Dean, couldn’t see the disappointment and disgust on Dean’s face. “A kiss?”

“A kiss?” Dean spit the words out. “And why the hell would I want a kiss like that from you?”

“I…” Sam started, but he finally turned away, face bright red as he tried to breathe properly. He’d ruined everything between them now.

“What? You what? Why did you kiss me?”

He had to say something, or Dean would never let this drop. Glancing at his brother, Sam finally admitted, “I like you Dean. I have… for a long time I guess. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” He couldn’t even finish, because Dean was there, and angry, and the lump in his throat choked him.

“Damn right you shouldn’t have!” Dean snapped. “You… I can’t believe you would do something like that. Something so stupid, something so gross.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam said, finally standing up straight again. Dean’s whole body was twitching, hands fiddling with the edge of his shirt before rubbing against his legs. His tongue flicked out to brush against his lips, eyes darted around the room. “I shouldn’t have. Just… forget about it, okay?” Sam didn’t want Dean to forget about it though, he wanted to talk about the feelings he had, he wanted Dean to understand how much Sam cared about him. There was no way he could do that, not with Dean so upset. Maybe once Dean calmed down, there might be some hope, but not now.

“Damn right you shouldn’t have!” Dean snarled, finally looking at Sam again. “Do you know how disgusting that was? You should be ashamed of yourself for doing that, for even thinking of me in that way! It’s wrong, way more wrong than anything else we’ve ever done or thought about doing. Just…” Dean shook his head and started heading out of the room. “You just don’t talk to me for a while, got it? I don’t even want to look at you.”

“Dean -” Sam started, feet moving to intercept Dean without Sam’s brain even getting to make a suggestion against the decision. “Please, wait -”

“Sammy? If you wanted to piss me off, you’ve succeeded. If you were trying to calm me down, you’ve failed beyond your wildest dreams. Just let me go, before I punch you too.” The way Dean’s eyes glint a dark green made Sam pause, and let Dean go.

Sam had just made such a large mistake that things between him and Dean might never be okay again. Judging by how hard Dean slammed the door behind himself, Sam knew it would be hours before Dean managed to chill out. What the hell had made Sam think it would be okay to do that again? Right, Spike. Sam should have known better.

 

15 - Castiel

“Yes,” Castiel nodded, opening his eyes and looking at Anya. “That helps a great deal.”

“Thought so.” Anya gave Cas a small smile and then stood up from her seat on the park bench. “You just need to spend a little time on it each day and eventually you’ll recharge. I’m going back to Xander now, he gets lost without me.”

“Thank you,” Cas nodded. Looking away from Anya to his hand, he watched the magic and felt like he had a bit of a handle on how to manipulate it. She was right, it would take him some time before he was ready to do anything large, like open a portal back to his reality.

“No problem. You coming back too?”

“I suppose.” Cas followed her back to Giles’ but got distracted by the man in the blanket they passed near Giles’ courtyard. “I’ll… be there later,” Cas said. He movied away from Anya and right over to the man. He thought it might be…

“Hey, hands off,” Spike said when Cas reached for the ratty brown fabric and pulled it up off of the face. Smoke began rising from Spike’s skin.

“Spike? You’re flammable in the daytime. Why are you out here?” Cas looked around for a good place where Spike might be safe.

“Your boyfriend kicked me out of the house,” Spike said, pulling the blanket over his face again. “And unless you have somewhere good for me to hang out, then I must be going.”

“Boyfriend?” Cas paused, turning to focus on Spike. Perhaps Spike was talking about Dean or Sam. "I'm not seeing anyone at the moment," he clarified.

Spike stopped moving, and looked up at Cas, one bright blue eye peeking out from a raised black eyebrow. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” Cas asked, tilting his head slightly to one side to see Spike better.

“About Dean?”

“What about Dean?” Cas pressed. He wished Spike would just say what he meant instead of trying to be confusing.

Spike smirked and then his hand lit on fire. Cas rushed over to Spike just as Spike let out a yelp and started banging his hand on his jacket. Cas pulled the blanket all around Spike and lightly pat Spike on the back.

“Trust me. I will find a place for you to be safe,” Cas mumbled, head twisting as he looked around for a dark and enclosed place he could take Spike. It didn’t take him long to find the right place, a shed near Giles’ apartment. “Yes,” Cas said. He half dragged, half carried Spike towards it.

The lock wasn’t hard to open, Cas was able to focus a bit of magic into the mechanisms and he broke it, opening the door and pulling Spike into the dark with himself. Once the door was closed behind them, he began pulling the blanket off of Spike. “There, now you’re safe.”

Spike ran a hand through his hair and then looked down at his hand, which was slowly healing. “You sure found a romantic getaway for us,” he said softly.

Castiel looked around the shed. “I don’t see anything romantic about this place.”

“You don’t see the romance in our situation?” Spike asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No,” Cas said as he crossed his arms.

Spike looked around them and then took a step closer to Castiel. “I’m suggesting that we’re in the dark, in an enclosed space, and maybe you might like to have some romance.”

Blinking at Spike, Cas said, “No. I do not desire romance with you.” From the way his vessel’s heart was pounding a little harder at Spike’s closeness, Castiel wasn’t sure that was the full truth. What he didn’t understand about Spike was why Spike was fascinating to Cas. The conversations he had with Spike were easy, he never felt like he had to overly explain himself or his actions, and when Spike had helped him in the bathroom, Spike had been very patient. Besides, for someone who was flirting with Cas, Spike had averted his gaze while Cas was naked in the water, and that was a level of polite Cas didn’t expect out of a vampire.

“Now I’m hurt,” Spike said, shrugging. “Wounded to my very core.”

“No you aren’t,” Cas scoffed. He knew better. Cas decided to watch Spike closely, just in case he didn’t really know better.

“No, I’m not,” Spike grinned. Then he looked around the shed and began to walk, hands reaching out to touch things.

“That’s what I thought.” Since he was stuck in an alternate reality, at least there was one interesting creature to communicate with.

 

16 - Buffy

Buffy walked to Giles’ apartment trying ignore the irritation rolling around in her stomach. Riley had found her after class and asked her about Dean and Sam, and she hadn’t wanted to talk to him about them at all. She wasn’t sure yet how much she trusted Riley, and until she knew that, she couldn’t let him know everything, potentially harming people who didn’t even belong in this reality.

When she got close to the brick buildings, she noticed Dean exiting the apartment. His eyes were dark and his hands clenched into tight fists. 

“Dean, wait!” Sam called from inside, but Dean didn’t even stop.

Confused, Buffy paused and glanced at Sam, whos gaze was flickering all over the place, at Dean, towards the door, back to Dean.

“Hey,” she started, but Dean took a few more strides, and ran right into her. “Oof,” she muttered, falling back.

“Oh!” Dean gasped. His eyes finally focused on her and he reached out to catch her before she was entirely on her ass. Her hands grasped at his arms, and she was pulled up onto her feet.

“Thanks,” she said. She looked over Dean’s face as he helped her steady herself.

“No problem,” he said, letting her go slowly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to -”

“Dean?” Sam called out. Buffy looked past Dean, who’s face clouded at the sound of Sam’s voice, to stare at Sam, who was nearly on them. The large brown eyes were filled with worry and regret. Making a split decision, Buffy grabbed Dean’s forearm and started tugging him away.

“Later Sam!” Buffy called. “I’m taking him for some training.”

“Buffy, I -” Sam started, but Buffy just waved and continued walking away.

Once they were significantly far from the apartment building, Buffy dropped her hold on Dean. “Sorry.” Buffy glanced at Dean. “It just seemed like you wanted to get away as much as I did earlier.”

“Thanks.” Dean gave her a small smile. Putting his hands in his pockets, he looked around a bit. “Yeah. I wanted to get out of there.”

“I got that,” Buffy grinned. “Something wrong?”

“Huh?” Dean glanced behind himself. “No, no, nothings -” but she raised her eyebrows at him and he noticed, so he trailed off, eyes traveling over her face before he shrugged. “Yeah, okay, there’s something wrong. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

“I’ve been there. A lot. Wanna talk about it? Sometimes it helps.” Sometimes it didn’t, but Buffy was beginning to feel like she wouldn’t be capable of being the Slayer if it wasn’t for the help from Willow and Xander.

“Does it? I haven’t really noticed. Whenever I talk about what’s going on in my head, I always feel like it just makes things worse.”

“Are you telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when you talk? When I try to omit details I mess up the most,” Buffy admitted with a shrug. Willow almost always caught her.

“Sometimes.” Dean sighed and gave her a sidelong glance and a small grin. “I think you’re too perceptive. How old are you again?”

“Nineteen, but who’s counting?” Buffy smiled back. “I’ve been doing this gig since I was fourteen, so I grew up a little faster than other kids.”

“I’ve known about monsters since I was four.” Dean looked ahead of them again, and wandered aimlessly across town. “Wasn’t part of the actual hunting until later, like, yeah.” He nodded his head. “I think I was around thirteen or fourteen when I went on my first multiple day hunt with my father.” He frowned. “I’ve practically raised Sammy, you know? Things… get blurred when you are that close to someone, but not so blurred you don’t know where the lines are.” Buffy waited for a moment for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“So, you raised your brother and now what? You’re too close?”

“No, we aren’t,” Dean shook his head. “That’s the thing. I mean, we aren’t, but we are.” Growling a little, which just made him more sexy, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and lightly smacked a fist into his open palm. “I can’t talk about this.”

“But there are feelings involved?”

“There are always feelings involved.”

“Okay, so what brand of feelings are we dealing with?” She tried to pick up on what was bothering Dean, and she wasn’t sure she could. There was looks she had noticed between Dean and Castiel, but… this was about Dean and Sam, right? “Is this about Cas?” she asked.

Dean looked at her, green eyes going a bit wide. “What do you mean, is this about Cas?”

“I mean, these feelings, are they related to Cas? I get the vibe between you and him, you know? Like… you two are close, but there’s something wrong?”

Dean remained silent for a time, but then he nodded. “Yeah, I guess, that’s part of it.”

Buffy took him to the nearest bench and pulled him down next to her. “So, what’s the problem exactly?”

“I think… I don’t know, I think Cas is playing us. Sam and I have been really close to him ever since Cas raised me from Hell.” Dean pursed his lips. “Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?”

Buffy nodded. “Lips are sealed. But Hell? That’s awful.”

“Yeah, and I’m not talking about that. Anyway, we’ve been close with him, fought next to him, the whole thing. Our lives were in his hands, his life was in ours, we did so many things for each other. Only this time… there’s something wrong, and Cas won’t talk about it, he just redirects us to the fact that he’s fighting some sort of angel war and he’s busy. What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Sounds like he’s trying to keep stuff from you,” Buffy said. “That sucks. Can you still trust him?”

“I don’t know,” Dean said. “I guess I’ve just been so frustrated with him and what’s going on that I haven’t been able to really think straight lately.”

“That’s going to affect your work.”

“Yeah,” Dean nodded.

“Confront him,” Buffy suggested. She lightly patted Dean’s knee. “Tell him that you have to talk, because this is getting dangerous. Worst thing he can do is say no, and if he does then you can tell him that if he doesn’t talk, you won’t trust him. Be bold Dean, you can do that.”

Dean stared at her for several minutes before he nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. And the thing with Sammy, that’ll just blow over.”

“You want to talk Sammy next?”

“No,” Dean said quickly, then he laughed a little. “No, but it’s okay. I can handle that. Thanks Buffy.”

“Sure. I live to help.” It wasn’t entirely true, mostly she wanted to get away, and she liked Dean’s company. He was handsome, cool, and a fighter. If she didn’t have Riley, she might be hitting on Dean full force. Even if he was older.

 

17 - Riley

Riley knew he had overstepped his boundaries with Buffy by the time he was done with school. He’d questioned her multiple times about the same thing, but he knew she was keeping something from him, he just didn’t know what. More and more he wished he was truly in her world, but she kept secrets like it was her job, and Riley supposed it was, in a way.

He was determined to find out the truth, and apologize for being such a jerk. Maybe then she’d open up to him a little more. It was a working theory.

As he got further into Sunnydale proper, he looked around and saw the one thing he had been afraid of seeing. Buffy was walking with a handsome man, older than her by at least a decade, one hand casually touching his arm. The arms were almost linked. The jealousy oozed into Riley so quickly he knew he hadn’t stopped being jealous yet today.

This must be one of the men Buffy had been talking about. Riley moved into the nearby shadows and watched Buffy walk. She seemed interested in the conversation, and the man was frowning, upset about something, but not her. Buffy’s eyes lit up, and he saw her animatedly saying something, her hand slipping off of the man’s arm so she could use it to talk. Riley smiled, he loved it when she used her hands to talk.

Shaking his head, he got back into survey mode. This wasn’t about what *he* loved, it was about what was going on with Buffy and the man. All about that, nothing else. The man nodded at her, and a small smile crept across his face, which lit up his big green eyes. Damn, he had good eyes.

Buffy smiled back, they talked for a while longer, then she pulled him off towards a bench. Riley had to leave the shadows, but he chose his path carefully. He was far enough away they wouldn’t see him, but close enough he could keep his eyes on them. When they sat down, he almost groaned out loud. She was right next to him. He knew it, he knew it!

Riley stood up fully, fists clenching as he did, body trembling. He was going to beat the shit out of this guy. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, but he didn’t care. Then the man pulled Buffy into a hug, and Riley snapped.

He was going to bust up their little flirtation fest and give them both a piece of his mind.

 

18 - Spike

“That’s what I thought,” Cas said. Spike turned to the angel with a smirk.

“I know.” Spike’s boredom was deeply seated in his bones, but the pressure was starting to lighten as he spent time with the visitors. He rather hoped they wouldn’t leave anytime soon.

“I don’t understand the repetitious nature of this conversation.”

“No?” Spike asked. He picked up a hammer and weighed it in his hand. Could he hurt the angel? He thought he could, after all the angel wasn’t a human.

“No.” There was an ending to that tone, Cas had no interest in furthering this line of conversation. Putting down the hammer, Spike looked Cas up and down and then frowned.

Cas’ clothes were cleaned, all the bloodstains were gone. “You got enough mojo back you could clean up, eh?” he asked, pointing at Cas’ clothes.

“Mojo?” Cas asked, looking down at his clothes with a frown.

“You know, you’re magic, you’re special stuff. I bet you have lots of special stuff.” Spike waggled his eyebrows at Cas and licked his lips slowly.

“Yes,” Cas said absently before looking up at Spike. Spike grinned and Cas’ frown deepened. “But I don’t believe that’s what you meant. I have many angel talents.”

“I bet you do. Like I bet you could disrobe me with a thought.”

“Not in this reality.”

“See?” Spike nearly crowed. Disrobe with a thought, that was a nifty talent to have.

“See what? It’s useless here.”

“But you could do it, and that’s the point.” Sometimes talking to Cas was like talking to a brick wall. Other times it was fun. For a moment it was fun, but now it was only fun because he was playing with someone other than Buffy’s crew. it could be better, he needed some return effort.

“If you say so. You should be safe here, I’ll leave and tell the others where you are.” Cas made to move, and Spike was over by him in a moment, one hand on Cas’ upper arm. Nice, it was firm and strong. Spike bet Cas was a demon in a fight.

“No you don’t.” Spike shook his head. “You don’t tell those bloody wankers anything, got me?”

“Why don’t you want them to know where you are, and that you’re safe?”

“Because they all hate me anyway. They’d love the opportunity to make fun of little Spike, hiding out in a garden shed.” Spike motioned to the room, letting go of Cas’ arm. “I won’t be made a fool of.”

“You care more about the way they see you than you do about your own health?”

“My health is fine,” Spike said. He crossed his arms.

“You are unable to hunt on your own, you cannot get sustenance without assistance, and you believe you’re fine?”

“I can go to the butchers myself. Probably get some nice human blood during the drop at the hospital too.” Spike thought that would be really, really nice. Maybe he could wait until the vampires had the drop, then go and kill them?

Cas tilted his head to one side, and something about the cold calculation bothered Spike. “You’re speaking words you don’t believe.”

“What do you know about belief?” Spike finally snapped. Cas was right, he had to rely on someone to get him money. He couldn’t work, he couldn’t do all the things he was used to doing, and now strangers to Buffy’s little group were making further decisions about what Spike could and couldn’t do.

For several long moments, Cas simply stared at Spike, but then he said, “I know a lot about belief.”

“Because of Dean? Does he believe in the innocence of you Cas?” Spike grinned and advanced on Cas. He was frustrated, in many ways, and he thought maybe Cas could handle it.

“My innocence? Dean is very aware that I’m no stranger to violence.” Cas’ brows furrowed as he stared at Spike. “That’s not the kind of innocence you’re implying.”

“Yeah, it’s not.” Spike felt the bloodlust take over, and his face shifted. “I’m talking a different kind of innocence.” Then he jumped on Cas, wrestling him to the ground.

Cas’ eyes went wide, and he brought his hands up to block Spike’s face. Cas’ elbow hit Spike’s chin, and Spike twisted his head right back, straddling Cas and pinning the offending arm to the ground.

“You smell delicious, you know?” Spike said, yanking the wrist out from the trench coat sleeve and sinking his fangs into Cas’ flesh.

Honey and sunlight poured over Spike’s lips, washing his mouth with a delight he rarely felt anymore when he fed. He gulped the first mouthful of blood in a rush, heart pounding in his chest painfully at how good it tasted, pants getting uncomfortably tight as well. The next mouthful was sugar cubes and heat, and the moment he swallowed that he realized something was wrong.

The heat became a painful burning, and he removed his mouth from Castiel, one hand going to his mouth as he spit out as much of the blood as he could. The red splattered across his hand, causing pin pricks of steam to fly up into the air. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Angel, Castiel was an angel, of course his blood would be toxic. If Spike hadn’t been so frustrated, he would never have attacked like this.

“Cas?” he whispered, spitting more blood out. “I think I made a really big mistake here.” His tongue was swollen in his mouth, and he thought that maybe a tooth had come out of the last spit of blood. Well, if he was going to die, at least he got to eat a holy creature once.

He felt his eyes close as he fell to the ground. Was his whole mouth melting, or was that just his imagination? Spike thought maybe his stomach was turning to liquid, and he wondered if it would burn through to the outside. That would be an awful way to go.

 

19 - Dean

“Do you now?” Dean asked with a grin. “You live to help?”

“That’s the job of the Slayer,” she said. Suddenly, Dean had the inappropriate desire to hug her. She was so tiny, so young, but doing things on her own, mostly on her own, that Dean had done with his father. At least he’d had someone who knew what they were doing to teach Dean.

Dean gave in and pulled Buffy close and her arms slipped around him instantly so he knew he wasn’t overstepping his boundaries. “You know, you’re alright kid,” he said. His heart beat fiercely in his chest as she pressed against him. It wasn’t sexual attraction at all, which was strange since she was gorgeous, but it was a feeling he used to equate to Sam.

For some odd reason, Dean wanted to protect Buffy. Not in the normal way that people wanted to protect, but in the “I want to teach you everything that I know so you’ll be safe” kind of way. He’d only felt that way about Sammy so far. What did that make Buffy to his confused mind, a little sister?

“I’m not a kid,” she said. For a moment he lost the ability to breathe as she squeezed him tight. Then her arms relaxed. “And I could break you if I wanted to.”

“You wouldn’t though,” he said, starting to pull away.

“No. You’re human, I don’t kill humans.”

“Buffy -” Dean started as she moved out of his arms and looked up at him. Maybe he could talk to her about Sammy?

“Get the hell away from Buffy,” a commanding male voice said from behind Dean. He frowned and looked up, and up, into the blue eyes of a young man.

“Excuse me?” Dean raised his eyebrows. The man’s hands were clenched tightly into fists, his body was shaking and his eyes were shifting between Buffy and Dean as though trying to decide who he was going to hit.

“Riley?” Buffy stood up and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“What’s wrong Buffy, don’t want to tell me all about your secret fling?” Riley finally decided to focus on Buffy. “How long has this been going on exactly? Years? Months? Are you playing me?”

“Secret fling?” Dean laughed and looked at Buffy. “Is he serious?”

Buffy wasn’t laughing back though, and by the way her face clouded over, Dean started to fear for the young man’s life. “Sorry, what? I’m not allowed to have friends? Riley, this is Dean, my friend from out of state. Dean, this is Riley, my boyfriend.”

“Oh, I see.” Dean stood himself and offered a hand to Riley. This was the boyfriend of the Slayer. Dean wondered if Riley knew that Buffy was the Slayer, and what that meant about her life. “Nice to meet you, I think.”

Riley glared at him, didn’t shake his hand, and looked right back at Buffy. “You think I’m going to accept that as fact, after seeing the way you two were walking together. You’re all over him Buffy, and he’s not pushing you away.”

“We were talking!” Buffy snapped.

“About what?” Riley returned instantly, and Dean held up his hands.

“It was private, okay? On *my* end.” Dean said. “Relax, there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Actually, I think I’m not misunderstanding.” Riley said with a shake of his head.

“Yeah, you are,” Buffy said. “For one, you’re not getting that Dean is a friend. For another, we were talking about Dean’s problems.”

“Thanks,” Dean said, trying not to sound offended. He was mostly not offended. “I guess the real problem here is that he doesn’t trust you.”

“Obviously,” Buffy snarled.

“I don’t trust *you*,” Riley said as he rounded on Dean.

“I’m not the one you suggested of cheating,” Dean shrugged. “I can have almost any woman I want to, why would I take one that’s already with someone?”

“Because it’s Buffy. Who wouldn’t want to be with her?”

“I’m not some kind of prize,” Buffy’s voice raised several notches. “I’m not dealing with this Riley. If you can’t realize that you’re my boyfriend, after everything I’ve told you, and everything you’ve told me, then that’s your problem, not mine. Let’s go Dean,” she said. Dean felt her grab hold of his jacket and start tugging him away. The whole thing was kind of comical actually. Dean had never been the boy in the affair before. Not that he was aware of anyway.

“Yeah. We have to get back to Giles. Hey, who’s that Xander kid?” Dean tried to change the topic completely, hoping Riley would back down.

“Xander?” Buffy looked at him with her brows furrowed. “How’d you meet Xander?”

“He was at Giles when I returned there this morning to check up on Sammy. He never came to Joyce’s last night. Fell asleep over books.” Dean and Buffy were walking around and past Riley before he finally spoke again.

“You’re going to Giles’ house?” Riley asked. Dean could feel him following behind them.

“Yes,” Dean said. He glanced at Riley briefly.

“So Sam is a research-aholic?” Buffy asked, ignoring Riley completely.

“Yeah, you know one of those?” Dean asked.

“Giles,” she said. Buffy’s speed increased once she realized Riley was following. “And Willow too honestly.”

“This is the girl you mentioned last night, right?” Dean asked, trying to picture Buffy having a friend who was a witch and it not being creepy.

“Who is Dean exactly?” Riley asked.

“Yes,” Buffy said with a nod. She didn’t even glance at Riley, which Dean thought was very cold. He liked that. “Willow and Xander have been my best friends since I moved to Sunnydale. They’ve helped me out with a lot of things.”

“Sounds like they’re good friends.” Dean frowned. He remembered what it was like to have good friends. At least they still had Bobby, and maybe Cas.

“They are. I room with Willow at college, it’s nice to be rooming with her, it’s kind of like having a sister suddenly, which I’m okay with.”

“Huh. I wouldn’t want a sister or brother, one is enough, and more than enough trouble.” Dean rolled his eyes. His conversation with Buffy hadn’t even touched on the problems with Sam, but somehow that didn’t really matter. It had calmed him down, and he thought he could finally face Sam again. He would try ignoring that it had happened and maybe the problem would go away.

The worst part of the kiss with Sam was that Dean’s body had heated up, not from anger. His heart had pounded hard in his chest and his hands had gone damp with sweat. Dean didn’t think he’d ever looked at Sammy that way, but now that Sammy had forced that kiss on him, he was having a hard time not thinking about Sammy that way. Because of that, a part of him didn’t want the problem to go away.

 

20 - Sam

“I think you could use this,” Giles’ voice came from behind Sam as Buffy and Dean walked off. Sam turned to him and saw a halfway filled tumbler being offered to him.

“What’s this?” Sam took it anyway, and lightly sniffed the contents.

“Burbon,” Giles said. “False stability.” He gave Sam a small smile. “Would you like to talk? I might be able to lend an impartial ear.”

“I don’t know…” Sam trailed off, not sure he could discuss this with anyone. Tthen he looked up at Giles, and from the way Giles was smiling gently, Sam knew Giles knew. “Shit.”

“No,” Giles shook his head. “It’s not all over. Why don’t we go upstairs. I’ll take the liquor with us.” Giles turned and walked back into the apartment, grabbing a bottle in one hand and another glass in his other.

Without another word, Sam followed Giles upstairs and into the bedroom. It was neat and orderly, everything in it’s place, bed against one wall, dressers on the other. Giles went over to one of the easy chairs and motioned for Sam to occupy the other.

“Thanks,” Sam said. He finished his glass in one large swallow and offered it for a refill before he sat down. “I think.”

“We do things that we sometimes regret. What are you regretting right now?”

Sam swallowed and felt his face flush. “Do I have to say it?”

“No. I know what happened, you don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. It would help you, I think, to do so.”

There was an ease to the way that Giles spoke which relaxed Sam and he leaned back into the chair with a sigh. “I kissed my brother,” Sam blurted out. It felt strange saying it out loud.

“And?”

“And I might have screwed up everything doing so.”

“Why?”

When Sam looked at Giles, he was taking another sip and watching Sam. There was no judgment in his eyes, which relieved Sam.

“Because he didn’t want that, not from me, probably not from anyone. Can I take it back?” Sam ended on a whisper.

“No. You can learn and move forward though,” Giles said evenly. “Why do you think he didn’t want that?”

“He pushed me away, and practically ran away from me, we’ll start there.”

“Has he ever shown any inclination towards men in a sexual way?”

“No.” Sam looked over at Giles. “Why?”

“Sometimes it’s easier to push away the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable than it is to admit they’re real. How long did it take you to realize you liked your brother in a romantic capacity?”

“Years,” Sam admitted. “I mean, I knew when I was a teen that there was something about Dean that got under my skin, and part of why I left him and my father to go to Stanford was so I didn’t have to…” Sam trailed off and he saw Giles’ nodding his head. “Oh. So… it might just be that Dean hasn’t gone through it all yet? No, he was pretty firm in his push.”

“I am not going to try to give you false hope. Many times people who are afraid of their feelings never learn to deal with them their whole life. What I will tell you is that I’ve seen the way he looks at you. There is a depth of emotion far greater than I’ve seen from most brothers. Is it love and sexual attraction? I don’t know. I do know his feelings aren’t simple.”

“Our life isn’t simple, it never has been.” Sam drained the cup and offered it to Giles, who filled it immediately.

“If you don’t mind my asking, why did you make a move now? This seems like the least likely choice for a confessional.”

Sam sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe because it’s been something under my skin for a long time and I just snapped?” It wasn’t just that though. “Maybe because I talked to Spike last night and he pointed out that if I never said anything to Dean, I’d never know how Dean feels.”

“Spike?” Giles asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Sam snorted. “I know, I shouldn’t take advice from a vampire, but… he just… it just sounded right. Somehow. I haven’t been able to get his words out of my mind all day.”

“Spike,” Giles said again and Sam frowned at Giles.

“Ye-es?”

Sighing, Giles shook his head. “Spike. Yes, he’s good at finding the words to make people do the things he wants them to do. He’s a master manipulator.”

Sam groaned. “I should have known better.”

“Probably.” Giles shook his head. “The thing about Spike is that he’s incredibly perceptive. He notices things no one else seems capable of seeing. What he does with that information though, that’s up to him and his whims. Sometimes he uses it to help people, sometimes, like right now, he’s bored, and uses that knowledge to make people do things they wouldn’t normally. He’s not a nice man, he’s actually a demon.”

“A demon? He’s a vampire, not a demon.”

“Well, here, when a person is turned to a vampire, the soul is removed from the body, as part of the process. Then an evil takes up residence inside the body. It has all the memories of the human life, but it isn’t the human. In a way, it is the darkest parts of the human, made evil by the transformation. I think we have a certain number of demons, and you only have one, yes?”

“Yeah,” Sam nodded. “We only have one, they used to be human souls that went to hell and got turned evil by the torture they endured. Then there are monsters, vampires, werewolves, kitsune, you name it, we have it.”

“Fascinating,” Giles said with a smile. “I think I would love to study the creatures you have.”

“I think they’re the same creatures, just… work differently?” Sam suggested with a frown.

“Yes. Anyway,” Giles shook his head. “I’m getting off track. The point is, Spike can’t be trusted to give good advice, because you never know if he’s giving it for his amusement or because he’s decided he wants to help you. That’s the problem with him.”

“I won’t listen to him again,” Sam promised. He wished he hadn’t made a move at all now.

“I don’t think listening to him is the problem, following through on what he thinks is a good idea is most likely the problem. I think though, that your feelings for your brother aren’t the only problem you’re having.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked. His heart picked up speed in his chest.

“Castiel,” Giles motioned with his glass. “You both have feelings for him.”

“He’s like family,” Sam said guardedly. He hadn’t hardly admitted to himself that he had feelings that went deeper than family for Cas.

“Yes, he is. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?” Giles asked. His eyes dug deep into Sam and exposed the truth Sam was trying to hide from.

“No.” He was lying, but he’d gotten good at that over the years, hadn’t he?

“Really?”

“Yes.”

They stared at each other for a while, then Sam collapsed on himself. “Shit.” He put his glass down and ran his hands over his face. If he loved them both, then what the hell was he supposed to do?

Giles was silent while Sam tried to calm down. It should be bad enough that he loved his brother, but loving an angel was not only as bad, it might be worse. A celestial wavelength of intent, that supposedly had no sexual desire at all. Yeah, Sam had problems.

When he finally spoke, he wasn’t sure if it was to Giles or to himself. “Cas is an angel. They don’t… have feelings like that.”

“I see.”

Sam looked up at Giles then. “What?”

“I didn’t know that angels didn’t have romantic feelings. Especially given the way he looks at both you and Dean. If he doesn’t have romantic feelings, then he cares very deeply for you.”

“Oh. Well Cas is different from most of the other angels, but… I don’t think they do. They’ve made it pretty obvious that angel’s aren’t supposed to have emotions.”

“That must be a horribly difficult way of living,” Giles mused.

Sam nodded. “I think so too, but they’re soldiers first.”

“That doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings, just that they suppress them. I’ve seen that sort of thing happen a lot with the Slayer. She is supposed to be a weapon, no attachments, do the mission, leave the clean up for someone else. I think though, it’s made Buffy much stronger to have people with her she can lean on and trust. I dare say she might become one of the longest lived Slayers because of it. I’m hoping anyway.” He smiled lightly then and Sam returned it.

“Thanks Giles,” Sam said. “I really appreciate you talking with me like this.”

“Anytime. Well, while you’re here.”

With a genuine grin, Sam nodded. “I won’t come calling on you once I’m back home. I promise.”

“Good, I don’t think traveling between realities regularly is a good idea.”

Laughing, Sam shook his head. “Neither do I.” He finished his drink and felt a little stronger after. He’d get through this. One step at a time, and if he had to give Dean some time to figure himself out, that was fine. It had taken Sam years to come to terms with it.

 

21 - Cas

Cas felt his eyes go wide as Spike fell off of him, blood oozing from his mouth and steam rising from his flesh. He sat up quickly, Spike’s legs twitching as his hands burned.

“Spike?” Cas said frantically. He hefted himself up to crouch over the other man. “What’s going on?” Cas’ heart was pounding uncomfortably in his chest as his eyes took in all the damage.

Spike’s lips were slowly melting off, his fingers were almost burned to the bone and steam was rising off of all of Spike’s body. This was okay, it was going to be okay, Cas knew it would be. He could heal Spike, he knew how to use the magic of this world now.

Closing his eyes, he put his hands gently on Spike’s chest and focused his mind on the energy floating around them. There was plenty of energy, everything that lived had some of it. Cas reached out and gently touched the bright green flowing off the grass and flowers outside. He pulled the energy close, wrapped it in his own energy to weave them together, then he concentrated on what he used to do to heal. Find the flaws and fix them. As an angel back home, this would take moments, but as a “heavenly being” here, it took forever.

He found the damage and pushed his magic right to it, imagining it fixing, healing the flaws and damage. Yes, he carefully emptied Spike’s stomach of Cas’ blood, which was still causing damage inside, and dumped it out on the lawn. Then he healed, fixing the intestine track, melding flesh together and smelling rot.

Opening his eyes, Cas looked down at Spike, who was no longer steaming from most places, but was now rotting. His flesh was turning brown and yellow, oozing for a different reason altogether. Right, Spike was undead, Cas couldn’t heal him like he could heal a human, different chemistry, and without knowing exactly what the vampires of this world were like internally, Cas wouldn’t be able to fix him properly.

Cas stood and started pacing around. Now what did he do? His hands flexed and rubbed at his slacks, eyes darting around the room for inspiration, but none came. What if Spike died? What if he had somehow killed Spike? He hadn’t intended to kill Spike, not at all. Cas hadn’t tried to stop Spike when he’d started feeding because he thought maybe it would help settle Spike down. If he’d known his blood was dangerous, he would have fought Spike off.

Looking back at Spike, he frowned. He had plenty of magic at his disposal, he could just fly them back to Giles bathroom and then they’d be in a safer place at least, with access to some blood that might help. Yes, that was the best plan. He rushed over, put his hands on Spike’s shoulder and wrist and then unfurled his wings, lifting into the air.

Or he would have except that took magic in this world, magic he hadn’t thought to store, so when he tried to fly, the magic rushed over to him and started attacking. He couldn’t weave it with his own magic, this was the earth, eating him once more. With a cry of pain, he felt his body spasm, all the magic inside forced out through his skin, breaking bones on the way out, bursting blood vessels and causing Cas to bleed all over again.

This was not what he wanted, and his frustration only made things worse. Falling to the ground in pain, Cas opened his eyes to look over at Spike. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his own body twitching on the ground as the last bits of magic were pulled out of him.

When the tremors were over, he took a deep breath. Spike was still alive, somehow, and Cas was still alive, and there was only one more way to get to Giles. Carefully standing up, Cas looked around for Spike’s blanket, and when he found it, he limped over to it, picked it up off of the ground and returned to Spike.

Cas was going to have to carry Spike to Giles.

 

22 - Giles

When the phone rang, Giles went right to it and answered. “Hello?” he said and was pleasantly surprised by the voice on the other end.

“Rupert? Hello! How are you holding up with your new visitors?” It was Althenea from the Devon Coven in England. Giles breathed out a sigh of relief. Hopefully they had something good to contribute to the search.

“I’m doing fine, thank you. Things could be better, but they aren’t wretched, yet.” He glanced around at the people inhabiting his house and tried not to think about his lack of privacy too much. “It would be fantastic if they could get back home though.”

“Well we’re not sure it’s a solution, but there is a spell we’ve found that -” but Giles lost the end of that sentence when his door opened.

“I can’t believe you’re being so childish Riley.” Buffy’s voice was loud as she walked in with her head high and a frown on her face.

Sam looked up from his book as they entered, and Giles moved a little away from the front door. “I’m sorry, repeat that last bit Althenea?”

“We’ve found a spell that might open a portal to another reality. It’s a little vague on the details but I can -”

“I’m not acting childish!” Riley snapped.

“Yes you are,” Dean’s voice rumbled across the room. Giles glanced up at them. Dean was standing close to Buffy on one side, and Riley was glaring at him. What on earth was going on with those three exactly?

“You’re the one making moves on my girlfriend,” Riley said, trying hard to stare down Dean.

“I’m not -” Dean started, but Buffy interrupted him.

“He’s not making moves on me Riley!” She moved so she was in between them and forced Riley’s gaze to focus on her. “You’re being paranoid.”

“Rupert?” Althenea’s voice came and Giles started, shaking his head and turning away from the train wreck in front of him. Did they have to argue in his house?

“I’m so sorry Althenea, the guests are… arguing now. I heard that there were vague details, were you going to offer to send it to me?”

“Or I can tell you over the phone if that’s better? It must be very difficult to keep your temper, with so many people in and out of your home.”

“You have no idea,” he grumbled.

“I’m not paranoid,” Riley protested and Giles reached for a pad of paper and a pen.

“Yes, I would like to see about this spell, so shoot.” He started writing as she dictated, but he only got about five words down when the door opened again.

“Hey guys,” Willow said cheerfully. “What’s up?”

“Riley thinks I’m cheating on him with Dean,” Buffy said.

“She’s not,” Dean said, and when Giles looked up, all of them were looking at Willow, who had a confused look on her face.

“Of course she’s not. Dean’s just a friend. Riley,” she crossed her arms. “What have I told you about Buffy?”

The way Riley fidgeted, Giles had a feeling that Willow might have threatened Riley somehow. Fascinating that someone like Riley would actually flinch away from someone so slight as Willow. There really was humanity in Riley, not just a soldier.

“Wait,” Giles said, looking down at his hands. “You didn’t say rat tail, did you?”

“Rat tail? No Rupert, bat hair. Did you get the thistle branch before that?”

“No, sorry, I’m at olive oil, wait… that’s for garlic bread.” Giles sighed again as he crossed out his doodles on the edges of the paper. It was a habit he needed to break or he’d mess himself up one of these days. “Let me try to tune them out, just a moment.” Giles closed his eyes, took a deep, calming breath, and blocked the outside noise out, pushing it away from himself and when he opened his eyes again he was grounded. “Okay, from heather blossom.”

Just as he was getting a good groove going with Althenea again the door burst open and the sharp tang of blood hit Giles’ nose. He looked up sharply as Castiel carried Spike into the room in his arms.

“Spike is injured,” he said and Giles blinked at the two of them.

“What happened?” Buffy asked, as Dean came over to Castiel and touched his arm.

“What happened to you?” Dean asked.

“I was trying to help him, but my magic…” he shrugged and looked up at Dean with big eyes. “We need to help him.”

Sam finally stood up from the couch and came over to Castiel as well. “What went wrong?” Sam asked gently, and Castiel turned his eyes to Sam.

“He was burning up and I tried to heal him, but that just made things worse I think. We have to do something.”

“Then I think you should call on Janus here, although there’s no actual deity that is mentioned for the rite.”

“Is this a full fledged circle we’re invoking here?” Giles asked, trying to focus on the conversation with Althenea instead of the vampire dripping all over his carpet.

“If you have enough people to do it, then yes. If not, just call on Janus to guide your power. We think the elements will help even if they aren’t called upon. This is -”

“No Dean, I will not allow him to bleed to death!” Castiel snapped. “He matters here and I will not ruin whatever chances he has because you don’t care for him.”

“I’m just saying it might not be possible to save him.”

“Hey guys,” Xander said, coming in the open door. “What’s up? Oh, are we letting Spike die? I like that.”

“Who’s Spike anyway Buffy? I thought he was a friend of Xander’s?” Riley’s voice grated along Giles’ nerves.

“He’s not in good shape. Is he going to die? We won’t have to share a room with him anymore if he dies,” Anya’s voice filtered in.

“I think he should be put down somewhere,” Sam said.

“Not on the couch,” Buffy said. “Giles will kill you if you get blood all over his couch.”

“He’s going to kill us anyway, Spike is bleeding on the floor,” Xander said gleefully. “Can I taunt him? He looks like he needs taunting.”

“You can’t taunt him,” Anya said. “Would you want someone taunting you on your death bed?”

Giles snapped. He offered his home to the Scoobies more because there was no other “base” from which to work from, but that didn’t mean they had to cause trouble when he was trying to help them in the first place.

Standing up and dropping his pen onto the coffee table he faced the room. “Enough!” he bellowed, and everyone looked over at him. “If you feel the need to communicate, you can do it quietly or you can simply leave the house! I am on an international call with the coven in England and if you want any of the information they have to give then you will afford me some peace and quiet! Have I made myself clear?”

Giles wasn’t sure he’d ever yelled that loudly at Buffy and her friends before, but the dead silence that rang through the flat was music to his ears.

“Sorry Giles,” Buffy said softly.

“Good,” he nodded. “Now, keep it this quiet, and allow me to finish my conversation. Thank you.” He sat back down and took a breath. “Althenea? We were at calling a full circle.”

 

23 - Buffy

When Giles returned to the phone, Buffy stood up tall and looked at everyone. Making split decisions, she pointed at Castiel. “You, go to the bathroom with Spike. Willow, you go with them, and help Cas out as much as you can.”

Nodding, Willow slipped her arm around Cas and started leading him towards the bathroom. “Let’s go, we’ll figure out what happened together and fix Spike.”

Then Buffy turned towards Dean. “You stay here. Research with Sam, or spend quiet time with Xander, I don’t care. Just make sure you don’t bother Giles, he’s important to you getting home.”

With a little frown, Dean nodded, but glanced at Riley with raised eyebrows. “You gonna be okay?” he asked. With a nod, Buffy grabbed Riley by the shirt.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for earlier Dean.”

“Same to you kiddo,” Dean grinned, reaching out and lightly ruffling Buffy’s hair.

“I’m not a kid,” she said with a shake of her head. Buffy pulled Riley out of the apartment with her.

“You kind of are,” Dean said softly, but when she glanced back at him, he was already moving away from them and looking uncertainly at his brother.

“Buffy,” Riley started, allowing himself to be pulled where Buffy wanted him.

“Riley, shut up,” she said, towing him out the door with her. She could almost hear his jaw click closed as he obeyed her and once they were out in the sun again, she let go of him and motioned towards the door. “Close that, and then come here to the table and sit down.”

She wanted to sit herself, but she had too much energy rolling around inside her from the arguments to do that. When Riley had finally made his way over to the table and was seated, she stopped pacing long enough to stare at him.

“Are you stupid?” she started with, but then lifted her hands. “Don’t answer that, I don’t want to know what you think. You are stupid.” He opened his mouth to talk and she held up a hand. “No, you don’t get to speak yet. You just listen.” She was a bit surprised when he did.

“The thing is Riley, strange things happen to me. I’ve talked to you about being the Slayer, but you don’t know everything. People come into my life and they leave, they do that all the time, it’s what happens. I don’t get attached to many people because I can’t trust them. See, how can I trust people when I can’t tell them what I do at night, and why I can’t go to that dance or that party? I do my best to still have a life, but it’s hard. Dating you was hard, because I wanted to tell you, so badly, and then it turned out you were one of those commando’s and I didn’t know what to think again.” She had been pacing, getting the thoughts out into the open, and now she wasn’t really sure where she had been going. Stopping, Buffy looked over at Riley and frowned.

“You have to realize that if I tell you something, it’s true. I don’t lie for fun, and I don’t hide my commitments to people. You’re my boyfriend, and I’m trying to make this whole thing work, but you have to give a little too and trust me. If you can’t trust me, we can’t go out anymore.” She crossed her arms and stared at Riley, refusing to flinch.

“Can I talk now?” he asked after several minutes of just staring at each other.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“I trust you. I just… it looked so obvious that you two were close, really close. Are you telling me I was completely reading into that?”

“I think he’s hot,” Buffy shrugged. “But you’re hotter. And I’m dating *you*, not Dean, who’s going to be gone in the next few days and I’ll never see him again.”

“I thought he was a family friend,” Riley said, frowning.

“He - “ but Buffy wanted him to trust her, so… she supposed she had to give a little. “Okay, he’s not exactly a family friend. He’s from another reality and we’re trying to get him back home. We met last night.”

“You lied to me?” Riley asked, raising his eyebrows. “And you’re wondering why I sometimes don’t trust you when you obviously don’t trust me.”

“I trust you!” Buffy said. She came over and grasped his hands in hers. “I don’t know if I trust the Initiative. I don’t know them, and I didn’t want you to have to keep a secret from them. I want to keep Dean, Sam and Cas a secret. They’re here for a little while, then they’re back home. My business.”

Frowning for a while, Riley finally nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll trust you I guess, but Buffy, please don’t keep secrets like this from me. It’ll only make me paranoid.”

“I’m getting that,” she smiled at him, feeling a little better over all.

“So, we’re good?” he asked, and she leaned across the table to kiss Riley lightly on the lips.

“We’re good,” she said with a smile.

“Good.”

 

24 - Xander

“Ooooohkay,” Xander said, looking at the remaining people in Giles’ apartment and frowning. “So… um… I think maybe we should get out of here. Buffy and Riley are probably going to be fighting for a while, who knows what’s going on with Spike, but I don’t particularly care, and Giles might still kill us. What do you say to hitting the Bronze? I know it’s a little early, but that might be a good thing.”

“Oh. Yes.” Anya smiled and nodded her head. “I think copious amounts of alcohol would be very nice right about now.”

“An, you aren’t 21 yet.” He wished, often, than he could just let her drink whenever she wanted to.

“I’m several thousand years old Xander,” she reminded him.

“Not on your license.”

Giles sent a glare at them and Xander moved a little way away from him. “So, what do you think?”

“What’s the Bronze?” Dean asked with a frown. “A bar?”

“Just about the only cool place in Sunnydale. They sometimes have live music. It’s a mini restaurant, a bar, there’s a balcony above the dance floor and a pool table.”

“So, a club?” Dean considered.

“I think it’s a good idea. Giles seems really intent on his phone conversation, and if it’s important, we want him to get everything he can possibly get right, right,” Sam said with a nod. “So, the Bronze? Is it far?”

“Nope,” Xander shook his head.

“I don’t know that we should be encouraging underage drinking,” Dean grinned, looking at Xander and Anya. Xander frowned and crossed his arms.

“Look, just because you’re old enough to drink doesn’t mean all of us want to. Beer bad.” Xander could still remember when Buffy went several thousand years BC and he would never forget the hair. Or the teeth.

Anya snickered and headed for the door. “I think the Bronze is a good idea. Let’s go.”

The door to the bathroom opened and Willow headed over to the fridge. “Hey,” Xander said. He walked over to the counter and peered in. “How are things?”

“Fine,” Willow said, looking over at Xander, a jar of pig’s blood in her hands. “Not fine,” she admitted. She shifted from one foot to the other. “We think he’s dying, so we’re going to try to feed him.” She looked really worried, and had that cute little tick in her eyebrows that she got when she didn’t know what she was doing but was trying to pretend she did.

“Good luck with that,” Xander said. “But you know, if he dies, no big loss.”

“Xander,” Willow said reproachfully. “Just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean he can’t still help us with… you know, things.”

“Riiiight,” Xander nodded. “If he could help, he’d have done it by now.”

“Look, I have to warm this up and then get it in to him.” She looked around at everyone. “You going somewhere?”

“Bronze, we think it might be good to get out of Giles’ hair.”

“Good idea,” Willow nodded. “Have fun.” Then she turned to the microwave and put the whole container into it, turning it on to cook. It creeped Xander out to see blood in the microwave.

“Yeck,” he said, turning back to the others. Dean and Sam were talking in low voices, and when he walked over to them, he heard the name Cas before they both looked up at him. “So?” he asked. “Verdict?”

“Yeah,” Dean said with a nod. “Let’s go.”

“Great.” Xander followed Anya out and he made sure someone closed the door before they made their way quickly into town.

“I don’t think Cas should be around Spike,” Dean said, and Xander glanced at him.

“Why?” Sam asked. “Cas is more than capable of taking care of himself.”

“Spike is dangerous. He uses words to cause the most trouble. Cas is kind of weak to that sort of manipulation.”

“I don’t think so,” Sam said, shaking his head. “I think Cas finds something in Spike that is curious and is just trying to figure it out. I think you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” Dean snapped and Xander glanced at Anya with a small smirk on his face. Dean certainly sounded jealous. Anya winked at him.

“No, no, of course not,” Sam mumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dean asked.

“Nothing.” When Xander looked over at Sam, he saw him shrugging.

“That wasn’t nothing voice. You had something voice.”

“What are you, two?” Sam asked and Xander tried very hard not to snicker. This was better than watching Buffy fight with Riley.

“What are you insinuating?” Dean pressed, and Sam sighed.

“Fine, you want to know? I think you have feelings you aren’t admitting revolving around Castiel,” Sam snapped.

“I’ve admitted to all of my feelings for Cas,” Dean said.

Xander leaned over to whisper into Anya’s ear. “Are we watching a parent fight, or a couple’s fight?”

“I’m thinking some mixture of the two,” Anya said and Xander backed away with large eyes.

“I didn’t mean it about the couple thing,” he said quickly.

“Oh, you didn’t?” Anya shrugged. “Well, I did.”

Icky. Xander shivered and looked ahead, listening closer to the voices to try to detect if there was something… more to Dean and Sam’s relationship.

“Yes I have,” Dean was protesting, and Xander wondered what he’d missed.

“No you haven’t. You’re bottling up feelings you don’t want to admit to because you think that it’s better if you do. Dean, when has it ever been a good idea for you to bottle up your emotions? Never. Not once. In fact, your emotions have helped you kill creatures again and again, haven’t they? Don’t block them out now because you don’t want to think about them.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s stop talking about this in fact.”

“You know what? No, let’s not. You forced this issue, let’s go all the way to the end. You have feelings *for* Cas. You feel for him, you want him to stay close, he’s family to you, but he’s more than that, isn’t he? You think about him in ways you think you shouldn’t. You -”

“Sam!” Dean cut him off. “Shut up! Stop talking like I… *like* Cas. I don’t like Cas in that way.”

“Bullshit Dean. You’re pretending you don’t, but you have deep, romantic, feelings for Cas. It’s past time you stopped hiding it and faced them like a fucking adult.”

Xander realized that Sam’s voice was getting a little distant, so he paused and glanced behind him. Sam and Dean were stopped in the middle of the road, staring at each other.

“I don’t… I don’t have *romantic* feelings for Cas,” Dean said, waving his hands vaguely.

“Yes you do,” Sam stressed.

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

They stared at each other for several, long minutes, and Xander wondered briefly if they were going to start hitting each other when Dean spoke again.

“You’re full of shit. That’s disgusting. Cas is family, he’s not… a girl.” Then he turned around and walked deliberately towards Xander, giving Xander a glare that made him start walking again.

“Lovers quarrel,” Anya whispered, and Xander nodded his head. He hated it when she was right.

 

25 - Dean

They were in the Bronze for about an hour when Dean wondered what was going on with Sam. Dean had been talking with Xander and Anya while Sam had mostly been staying by himself, drinking and watching people. At first, Dean hadn’t thought much of it, Sam liked to people watch, but now, as Sam seemed to be having some difficulty walking to get another drink, Dean wondered if Sam had managed to get himself drunk.

That rarely happened, and Dean stood up to walk over to his brother. “Hey,” he said, nodding at Sam, who glared at him. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Sam snapped. He took his next drink and began to walk back to the dark corner he’d been sitting in. Taking a few steps before he wobbled, Dean quickly put an arm under Sam, holding him upright.

“You don’t seem fine,” Dean said as Sam struggled in his arms.

“Lemme go,” Sam said. He tried to brush Dean’s hands off of him.

“Can you walk?” Dean asked. Raising his eyebrows at Sam, Dean waited as Sam stood still for a moment, then nodded. Carefully disentangling himself from his brother, he watched Sam closely as he wobbled.

“See? Um fine.” Then Sam made his way carefully and slowly back to his seat.

Dean followed and sat down next to Sam on the couch. “How the hell did you manage to get drunk Sam?” he asked, and Sam glared at him. The last time Sam had really gotten drunk was years ago, and Dean had made a promise he’d kill his brother.

“I’ve been drinking for hours Dean, really,” Sam snorted, then he looked away from Dean and licked his lips. “Ever since I kissed you.”

Looking around the room quickly, Dean hissed, “Don’t talk about that.” His heart instantly sped up, and his hands clenched a few times. How could Sam even talk about that right now? And why couldn’t Dean stop thinking about his brother, close to him like that, kissing him.

“Why?” Sam shook his head slightly. “So you can pretend it didn’t happen? Well it did Dean, and fine, it’s too much for you to be with me, fine, you don’t feel that way, but…” Sam glanced at Dean. “I don’t remember where I was goin’ with that.”

“Yeah, you probably won’t even remember this conversation in the morning,” Dean snorted. He took a breath and decided that he could try to live with his brothers… unconventional love. It was obvious that Sam couldn’t get over it, and maybe if Dean *said* he had moved on, then they could *actually* move on. He didn’t want to face the emotions he was feeling towards Sammy, and he *didn’t* have feelings for Cas.

“Will,” Sam said with a pout.

“Maybe. I think you should get to Joyce’s place though, sleep this,” Dean waved a vague hand over Sam. “Off.”

“Who’s Joyce?”

“Buffy’s mother. Sweet lady, you were supposed to meet her yesterday.”

“I don’t want a lady. I want you. And you don’t want me, but you want Cas, but you won’t admit it.” Why did Sam have to say these things? Wasn’t it bad enough that he’d said them once, was twice or three times going to make things better?

“Sleep Sam,” Dean tried to steer Sam back to the right place. “You should sleep.”

“No,” Sam shook his head. “I don’t want sleep.”

“You need to sleep the alcohol off.”

“No.”

It was like dealing with a child. Sam really was a terrible drunk. “Yes.”

“No!” Sam shouted at him, and several people looked over at them. Dean took a deep breath.

“Why not?” he asked, trying to keep his voice steady and his anger in control.

“Because I don’t want to. I want to be miserable.”

“You’re making everyone miserable.”

“Good.” Sam crossed his arms, which almost spilled his drink, which made him drink it down before setting the empty glass on the table. “I want miserable everyone.”

“Fine,” Dean snapped, standing up, patience gone. Not that he’d had much to begin with. “If you won’t do the reasonable thing, then I wash my hands of you.” He tossed his hands in the air and walked off to the dance floor. The only way he’d found to combat his aggravation with his brother was to dance, so he would dance. Well, at least sway. There were plenty of hot chicks out there on the floor, and he would see how many he could flirt with.

 

26 - Sam

Sam couldn’t tell how many girls it was now, that Dean was flirting with. He couldn’t even tell how long Dean had been out on the dance floor. There had been a redhead, a brunette, another brunette, a blond and another brunette, although the last one might have been black haired, in the lighting, Sam didn’t know for sure.

The dance floor was spinning in Sam’s sights, and he figured that was the alcohol. He probably should have cut himself off a long time ago, but all he wanted was… Dean. No, Dean to admit something… no, Dean, fuck, it was all blurring in his head so he closed his eyes and leaned back in the couch. It was nice, the couch, it seemed to know just what he needed. Relaxation.

Maybe Dean had been right, and he needed to cut himself off, go sleep the alcohol off, but Sam didn’t want to do that, he wanted more… of something. One hand trailed up to his shirt and unbuttoned a couple of the bottom buttons. Only two maybe, because they were difficult to unbutton, but he was hot, so maybe he should pull the shirt off his head? No, too much work.

He opened his eyes again, and there was Dean, still dancing, five or six girls around him, maybe eight, it was hard to count, and they kept melding with each other in Sam’s gaze. It was just that Dean loved, he loved so much, but he wouldn’t admit to it because it wasn’t standard and he’d just been with, was sort of with, Lisa and Ben, not with Ben exactly, but sort of being his father and… Sam couldn’t remember where that thought had originated, but he knew he didn’t want to be here anymore.

Standing was difficult, but he finally got it, and he started walking towards the door. Someone offered him a hand and he shook his head at them, waving a hand with a few dollars in it at them. He didn’t know why he was offering money to strangers, maybe he owed them something? Well, it shut them up anyway.

Outside was fresh air, and that cleared Sam’s head a little, which was why he knew that there were taxi’s on the road nearby. He walked over to one and handed him cash, said Giles’ address and leaned back in the seat. He had to do more research, or sleep on the couch, or something. Something more, something else. He had… there were things to do.

“We’re here,” a voice interrupted his thoughts, or non thoughts, or whatever they were, but Sam opened his eyes, handed the cabbie money for the ride and slipped out of the car.

The walk to the door was a bit unstable, but Sam didn’t fall, to which he was glad. He didn’t even knock, just reached for the handle, and as it was unlocked, he went inside, closed the door and headed for the couch. This couch had seen a lot of things, Sam figured. People, places, maybe it had been in England at one point. Sam wondered if the couch would speak with an English accent if it could speak, but that was ridiculous, so he lay down and took a deep breath.

Research. They had to get back home, and Sam wanted to get home. Things made sense there, and maybe once they were home, he could forget his horrible mistake he’d made in kissing his brother. Yes, maybe that would be a good idea.

Oh. Sam opened his eyes and looked over at the bookshelf in front of him. Magic. This world worked on different kinds of magic. What had Anya said? Something about anyone being able to tap into it? What if Sam could? What would that be like? Surely there was a forgetting spell?

He swung his legs over the couch and reached for the most basic of spell books. It didn’t take him long, three books later he found exactly what he wanted, he figured. Looking the ingredients over, he nodded and started wandering around, gathering them and setting them up on the desk. He could do this, because anyone could do magic here. Yes, yes he could.

Ingredients pulverized and scattered over the table, Sam read the latin off and closed his eyes, trying to draw the magic into himself as the book said. Oh… his eyes opened and he saw swirls of magic all around him. Was this what witches in this world saw? Or was it what Cas saw? He reached out and gently twined some of the magic around his finger, smiling as he saw it move with his finger.

Taking a deep breath, he finished the incantation, but when the magic rushed through him, it zoomed right back out of him. There was the sound of smashing lights, and books fell from the shelves. A whirl of wind rushed all the papers off the tables and the couch overturned.

Well, that wasn’t a forgetting spell. Sam didn’t know what it was, but he still remembered everything, and now Giles’ house was a mess. Whoops.

A hand touched his shoulder, and he turned suddenly, nearly falling on his ass as he wobbled. Bright red hair framed a pixie face, and Sam squinted to try to see who was in the room with him.

“What are you doing?” Cas’ voice came from the doorway, and Sam blinked over to Cas.

“I have no idea,” Sam admitted. He couldn’t even remember what spell he was trying to do. Then he focused on Cas and saw worry. “Cas? Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Cas nodded. “It’s Spike.”

 

27 - Cas

“Okay,” Willow said, motioning to the tiled floor. “I’ll get as much out of the way as I can, you just put him here.”

Cas gently placed Spike on the ground and pulled the shirt away from Spike’s neck to see if he was stabilizing or not. He wasn’t, and a soft whimper came from Cas’ throat unwittingly. “He’s dying,” Cas said.

“Yeah.” Willow moved several things off the ground, tucked the curtain into the tub and then grabbed a towel, folding it several times and then gently placing it under Spike’s head. “What happened?”

Licking his lips gingerly, Cas looked up at Willow with worried eyes. “He tried to feed from me.”

“He did *what*?” Willow practically screeched.

“Actually, he didn’t try to, I allowed him to, and then he was burning. I think… perhaps it’s because I’m an angel? I thought it would help him calm down if he fed…” Cas wasn’t exactly lying, but he wasn’t exactly telling the truth either. He hadn’t tried to stop Spike, but he hadn’t initiated the feeding. Cas thought maybe he could protect Spike. He already knew the people here were hostile to Spike, so they wouldn’t be happy if Spike had attacked Cas.

“Okay.” Willow shook her head. “So, he ate your blood. And you’re an angel, and everything holy here burns vampires so… probably it’s your blood that’s the problem. Maybe… maybe if he fed on something more… you know? Pig’s blood? We have some of that in the fridge.”

“Make sure it’s warmed appropriately, or it might not go down. With the damage done…” Cas trailed off and looked up at her, his eyes wide. “I don’t want to hurt him any further than I already have.”

“Right.” She stood up and headed for the door. “He… he is evil, you know?”

“Yes, I know,” Cas nodded. “I’ve been speaking with evil much worse than he is for some time, he won’t harm me.”

“Right.” Then she was out of the room and Cas was left looking over Spike some more.

“You’ll be alright. I’m sorry for harming you,” Cas said, gently stroking stiff blond hair out of Spike’s closed eyes. “You must live though, for I didn’t mean to do this. I think… you need a hobby. You are obviously frustrated and annoyed.”

Spike didn’t do anything, and while Willow was gone, Cas got restless and he stood to run warm water in the sink. He got a wash cloth wet and started cleaning some of the blood off of Spike’s face, like Spike had shown Cas to do with his own face. If he could just see the extent of the damage…

When the door opened and Willow came back in, Cas had managed to clean up most of the old blood from the wounds on Spike’s face. Some of his skin was missing, and there was a flash of bone near Spike’s right eye, but he didn’t seem to be seeping anymore, which Cas took to be a good sign.

“Oooh,” Willow moaned, clamping her lips shut. “That’s gross.”

“I’m sorry,” Cas said. He reached for the blood and Willow handed it over, helping Cas feed Spike by tipping his head back. Carefully, Cas poured a bit of the blood into Spike’s mouth. Spike swallowed, which was a good sign, moaned, which was a bad one, and his swollen tongue flicked out to lightly run across his broken lips. Cas took that as a sign that he wanted more, so he poured more blood.

It took a few minutes, but finally all the pig’s blood was in Spike’s body, and Cas put the plastic container on the ground. “Now what?” he asked, watching Spike for any hint of a change.

“Now we wait, I guess,” Willow said, and Cas sighed, looking up at her and wondering what exactly he was to do while waiting.

*

They discussed cards, magic, the difference between creatures in each universe, and twice more they got pig’s blood to feed Spike. He didn’t seem to be getting much better, but he wasn’t getting worse either. The last batch came directly from the butchers, Willow had made the trip herself, and came back with it, and Spike really seemed to enjoy that one. Not that it helped.

Cas was pacing in the small bathroom when Willow finally sighed and said, “I don’t think the animal is doing it.”

“What else is there? I cannot feed him more of *my* blood, that’ll just kill him.”

“I know, but… I don’t know what else to feed him,” Willow said. She stood up and walked over to him, placing hands on his shoulders. “Stop pacing, you’re making me queasy.”

“Sorry,” Cas sighed. Then he brightened. “Human blood!” he said triumphantly. “Surely that would fix the issue.”

“You’re not feeding him *my* blood!” Willow squeaked, taking a step away from Cas.

“No?” Cas asked with a frown. “Well, maybe someone else?”

“I thought I heard some movement in the other room, I’ll go see who’s here. Cas? If it’s one of us, you’re out of luck, I’m sorry.” Willow seemed very interested in getting out of the room suddenly, and Cas wondered about that.

“Then I hope it’s Sam or Dean.” Cas watched as she left the room, then he felt the surge of magic and heard a crash. With a frown, he left the bathroom and came out to see chaos in the other room.

“What are you doing?” Cas asked, voice steady as he looked around.

“I have no idea,” Sam said as he looked around the room. He finally focused on Cas. “Cas? Is something wrong?” he asked, and Cas remembered the reason they were out there.

“Yes,” Cas nodded. “It’s Spike.” Spike was dying.

“What’s wrong with Spike now?” Sam asked, moving to one of the chairs and sitting down.

“The same thing that was wrong before. I believe my blood is killing him. We have given him over three pints of pig’s blood, but he is not healing.”

“Wait, he drank your blood?” Sam asked, and impatiently, Cas nodded.

“I allowed him to drink my blood, believing it would help relax him, but it didn’t have the desired effect. I’m worried about him surviving my mistake. Please, I need human blood.”

“What do you want me to do about that? Rob a blood bank?”

“No,” Willow shook her head. “Wrong day of the week.”

Sam turned confused eyes on her, and Cas frowned. What did the day of the week have to do with anything? She looked between the two of them and laughed lightly.

“We have a blood route. We get blood every week on the same day. Regularly Buffy has to beat up vampires to keep them from the blood so the hospital doesn’t lose much. So, no, not that route.”

“Then… what…” the fact that he was so slow to realize what they wanted clued off Cas that there was something wrong with Sam. Was he drunk? “Oh. You want me to feed him my blood? Really Cas?”

“I’ve really made a mistake here,” Cas said, brows furrowing. He began pacing again. “I feel as though…” he could see the threads of Fate, even here, and there were things Spike was destined to do, unless Cas fucked that up. “I have to help him,” he said firmly. “Will you help me?”

“I don’t know that my blood is the best right now,” Sam said. “I’ve been drinking, doesn’t that make a difference?”

“It might make him drunk, but I don’t think you have to worry about that. Please Sam,” Cas pleaded, walking over to Sam and clasping his hands. “Please, will you do this for me?”

Sam held his gaze for a while, and then Cas could see something spark in the back of Sam’s eyes. Finally, he nodded. “Alright. If you think it might help, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Yes!” Cas said, nodding. “I think it’ll help a great deal.”

“Let’s get this over with then,” Sam said as he stood and walked towards the bathroom.

“You know you don’t have to do this, right?” Willow said, and Sam nodded.

“I’m doing this for Cas. We owe him, a whole lot, so it’s fine.”

“You three are weird,” Willow admitted, and then she hung to the back, allowing Cas and Sam into the bathroom.

“I can cut your arm, if you’d like,” Cas offered, but Sam was pulling a knife out of his sleeve as he spoke.

“No, I’ve got this,” he said, cutting shallowly under his wrist. “I just hope it works.” Blood splattered across Spike’s face, then began dripping into Spike’s mouth.

Cas watched Sam for a while, a strange feeling of pleasure spreading out across his chest. He was more than a little happy to have the help, and knowing that Sam cared for Cas so much was very wonderful. Especially when Cas considered the fact that he’d brought Sam back without his soul.

Hands reached up and clasped at Sam’s wrist and pulled the arm down. Cas looked at Spike, who’s eyes were open and wide, face beginning to heal already. He was holding Sam to his mouth, drinking greedily, loudly, and for some reason that made Cas’ face flush. Was it because he could remember how it had felt for Spike to drink from him? It had been a pleasant feeling, warm through his body in a way Castiel couldn’t quite understand.

Sam let Spike drink for a while, but then he pulled his hand away from Spike and opened his mouth to speak. Instead, he fell back, eyes closing as he passed out. Castiel reached over and healed the wound on Sam’s arm, and then looked at Spike.

“You’re alive?”

“Yeah,” Spike nodded. “I seem to be.” He took several deep breaths, and as Cas watched him, the last of the damage to Spike’s face healed up. “That was delicious. I might be a little tipsy.”

“Is Sam okay?” Willow asked, and Cas nodded.

“Yes, he is. Shall we get him to the couch?” Cas asked, standing and putting his arms under Sam’s shoulders.

“Sure,” Willow agreed, moving to Sam’s ankles and pulling them up off the ground. She grunted several times but between the two of them they got Sam to the couch. “There,” she said with a nod.

“Will you look after him?” Cas asked. “He could probably use some water.”

“Yeah.” She motioned towards the bathroom. “You deal with Spike.”

Giving her a small smile, Cas nodded. “Yes, thank you, I will.” He walked back to the bathroom and closed the door.

“We have to talk,” he said, watching Spike carefully. “Perhaps a lot of talking.”

Spike raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“Yes.”

 

28 - Spike

Spike waited for several moments for Cas to say something, but when he didn’t, Spike made a waving motion with his hand. “Well, I think that you should start, since you’re the one who seems to know that there’s something to talk about.”

“I’m sorry,” Cas said, and Spike raised his eyebrows.

“You’re sorry for what?” Spike asked. Wasn’t he the one who had attacked Cas?

“My blood. I didn’t even think about what kind of effects it could have on you.”

“Your blood? You’re apologizing for your blood burning my stomach apart, when I was the one who attacked you?” Spike laughed. “You must be joking, right?”

“The things that I said to the others will lead them to believe that I allowed you to feed from me,” Castiel said, and his gaze flickered away from Spike.

“You… did what now?” Spike shook his head. “You’re one strange creature, aren’t you?” What was he going to do with this angel? The man was incredibly handsome, and seemed to have some sort of soft spot for Spike. Even though Spike had attacked him and torn into Castiel’s wrist with rampant bloodlust.

“You’re… there is something about you that fascinates me,” Castiel said. Blue eyes turned back to Spike. “I don’t understand what it is. Perhaps it’s because the vampires in our world are so much different from the ones here. You may not have a soul, but you retain all the memories of the soul that used to occupy the body, and that influences how you behave, and how you react to things. There is also some direct correlation to the person that was inside and the demon’s personality that I do not understand.”

“So,” Spike said, reaching up a finger and running it across Castiel’s cheek. “You wish to dig inside my brain and learn all about me?”

“I think that might be the truth,” Castiel said. “However I’m not sure you would survive the process.”

“You could, dig into parts of me,” Spike lowered his voice and licked his lips suggestively. He sat up so he could bring his body closer to Castiel. “I might just let you.”

“No, I don’t think the things I wish to learn can be found by only partial exploration.” Castiel’s breath was coming in short pants now, and his eyes searched Spike’s face.

“You don’t even know what the exploration would be like,” Spike pointed out. He shrugged and looked away from Cas. “I like the fact that you took the blame for my feeding from you. Tell me Cas, how did I survive? I should have died, it was like I swallowed Holy Water.”

“I carried you here, and Willow and I fed you many pints of pigs blood. When that didn’t seem to work, we convinced Sam to give you some of his blood. That seemed to restore you completely.”

“Ah,” Spike licked his lips and allowed his tongue to swirl around in his mouth to get all the bits of blood hidden. “That’s what tastes so good. I think I’m a little drunk from him,” he admitted, looking back at Cas. “He was delicious.”

“We only allowed you to feed enough to heal you, nothing extravagant.”

“Well, so long as there wasn’t anything extravagant going on,” Spike grinned.

Castiel’s blue eyes traveled over Spike’s face and he turned his head to show off his best features. “You like to toy with people.”

“Yes,” Spike nodded. “It helps pass the time.”

“Someday it might get you killed.”

“Someday it might. Before that happens though, can I properly thank you for saving my life?” Spike asked with another smirk.

“Yes, of course,” Cas said. Spike didn’t hesitate, he moved the rest of the distance between the two of them and pressed his lips against Cas’.

The man was soft, and warm, all the things Spike wasn’t anymore. He smiled a little as he kissed, but the smile faded quickly as Cas pressed himself against Spike, returning the kiss with a fervor that Spike hadn’t counted on. A moan escaped him as Cas wrapped his arms around Spike’s head and his fingers tangled in Spike’s hair.

Opening his mouth, Spike flicked his tongue out to sweep across Cas’ lips, and Cas’ mouth opened, their tongues meeting and twining with each other. They both seemed intent on getting as far into the other’s mouth as possible, and a brief power play ensued as Spike tried to get down Cas’ throat and Cas nipped at Spike’s tongue to distract him. Spike’s hands traveled up Cas’ body, under the trench coat, over the rest of the clothes, feeling the strong muscles that resided there. The man this angel was in was no slouch, and that was wonderfully exciting.

Cas pressed Spike to the ground then, legs straddling Spike’s hips as he leaned over Spike and pulled away from the kiss to stare at Spike for a moment. Spike gasped a few times and he grinned up at Cas.

“You won’t hear me complaining,” Spike said. He reached for the buttons on Cas’ clothes so he could slip his hands inside and touch flesh.

“I see.” Cas found the edge of Spike’s shirt with his hands and pulled it up, touching his skin with deft fingers. Spike groaned as Cas lightly kneaded his stomach and then found Spike’s nipples, brushing against them curiously.

“Cas,” Spike moaned as the sensations washed over him. He leaned up so he could capture Cas’ mouth again. This was great, this was wonderful, and for however long he could have this angel, he would touch and suck and kiss. Propriety be damned.

 

29 - Willow

“It’s okay Sam,” Willow said to the prone body. “You’ll be fine, I’m sure. It’s just a little blood loss, and that angel friend of yours says it’s going to be okay, so it’s going to be okay.” She didn’t know when she started talking to people who weren’t awake, but once she got started, she saw no reason to stop. “You just wait a little while, let your body rest up, and you’ll be good as new in no time.”

“Willow?” Giles’ voice came from the staircase, and Willow stood quickly, smiling over at Giles.

“Hey Giles,” she said. “Sorry if we made a lot of noise, we weren’t trying to.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” He sounded a little distracted, but he came the rest of the way down the stairs and then paused, eyes traveling around the room. “Good God, what happened here?”

“Um… Sam tried to do a spell and it didn’t work?” Willow offered. She didn’t know what else to say, and when Giles moved to the desk to put a pad of paper down she gave him a bright smile.

“There’s a great many things to do and apparently that includes cleaning up my home. I’m just trying to get it all together.”

“Oh? What did the coven have to say?” Willow asked curiously. Her own witch studies might not be going well at school, but Giles’ resources could be counted on. A part of Willow wished she had chosen that school in England, because she might have had better luck getting into a coven of her own.

“Well, they think they have a spell,” Giles said with a smile. “I certainly hope they’re right, but we’ll see, of course. It’s simple, but complex, as you know magic can be.” He looked down at Sam. “Is this just from the spell?”

“Oh, no, but he’s going to be fine,” Willow said quickly. When Giles raised his eyebrows, she realized that wasn’t what he had been worried about. “Sorry. We had this thing… we couldn’t help Spike, you see. He’d had -” but she didn’t get to continue on because the door opened and Dean walked in.

“Hey,” he said, closing the door behind himself. “Is Sam here?”

“Yeah,” Willow said with a nod, pointing to the prone body on the couch. “He’s here.” There was something about the way that Dean was looking down at Sam that made her wonder if they’d ever stopped fighting.

“He’s sleeping it off then,” he said, coming over, but his eyes fell on Sam’s pale face. “What happened?”

“I was just telling Giles that,” she said. “You see, Spike… he wasn’t recovering. We gave him about three quarts or so of pig’s blood, I even made another stop at the butchers. Anyway, Castiel wondered if human blood would help him, and I told him I didn’t know.” Willow shrugged, she really hadn’t.

“Willow,” Giles said, and when Willow looked over at him, he was frowning. “We don’t feed human blood to vampires.”

“No,” Willow agreed. “We don’t.”

“Are you telling me that Sam volunteered his blood to Spike?” Dean asked, very slowly, voice incredibly soft and deadly.

Willow felt her heart pound a great deal harder in her chest as she looked at Dean. So far, knowing him, she hadn’t thought of him as dangerous to *her*. The look in his eyes made her wonder if he had killed human’s before, not just monsters. There was a coldness to that gaze that sent ice through her veins, and she swallowed several times trying to get her breathing under control. For some reason, she was having trouble taking in air.

“Yes?” she squeaked.

“That’s not exactly what happened then,” Giles said, voice soothing, but Willow was pretty sure that was for her, because it didn’t seem to be working for Dean.

“No. I mean, he did, but it was after we’d talked to him for a little while. He’d tried to do some sort of spell, and he kind of caused the mess,” Willow rushed the words out. Right about now, she was willing to say anything to pass Dean’s anger towards her to someone else.

“Is *that* what happened down here?” Giles asked.

“Okay, then what?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

“Then Cas told him what was going on with Spike. Sam listened, and after everything was said, and after I told him I wasn’t giving my blood up for Spike, he agreed to help. So… he went in there, and fed Spike. Spike seems to be in good shape now,” she said hopefully, but that didn’t seem to make Dean happier in the slightest.

“Sam allowed a vampire to drink from him? Cas asked him to? Is that what you’re telling me?” Dean asked. Willow tried to smile, but she was frowning at the same time, and that didn’t go very well.

“Yes?” She wasn’t sure anything she said would be helpful or useful. In fact, she was starting to feel rather bad that she’d told Dean anything. She was worried that he would go into the other room and kill Spike, now that he was in good condition.

“Where are they?” Dean asked and Giles reached out a hand, placing it lightly on Dean’s shoulder. Dean shook it off, and Giles pulled his glasses off of his face to wipe them clean.

“There’s no use being so upset. Your brother is a grown man, and is perfectly capable of making his own decisions regarding his well being.”

“My *brother* was drunk off of his ass. He wasn’t in control of his decisions, so this was… a form of manipulation, you took advantage of him.” Dean looked from Willow, who was beginning to feel like the worst person in the world, to Giles, who was now putting his glasses on and looking stately. “I can’t believe you people. Especially given how much you want to kill vampires. Where are they?”

“The bathroom,” Willow pointed, and Dean nodded.

“I would say thank you, but…” he trailed off, stomping towards the other room.

“Well, that went well,” Willow said, frowning. Had she done the wrong thing? Probably, but Cas knew Sam better than she had, and he’d pressed the issue. Surely if he was going to be mad at someone, he would be mad at Cas, not so much her, in the end of things, right? She wasn’t even vaguely sure.

 

30 - Giles

“Well,” Giles said as he looked through newly cleaned glasses at Willow. They hadn’t needed cleaning, but it was always something he could do to try to pull the focus away from himself. “That went spectacularly badly.”

“Agreed.” Willow looked like she’d just kicked a sick puppy and he reached out to lightly pat her shoulder.

“This is not your fault, you know that, right?” Giles asked, and when she looked up at him, he knew that she didn’t really know that at the moment.

“Yes?” she said though, and he gave her a small smile.

“Willow, everything we said was true. He is a grown man, fully capable of making his own decisions, even if he wasn’t in full control of his higher senses. Out of the two of you, Castiel should have been the one to put a stop to things if it was likely that Sam wasn’t in full control. You can’t blame yourself for the actions of adults.”

She gave him a smile and nodded her head. “Thanks Giles.”

The bathroom door opened and they heard Dean shouting. “What the hell is going on here?!”

Giles looked at his pad of paper and made a split decision. “Would you like to go to the magic shop and pick up a few supplies I don’t have in stock here?”

Willow looked down the hall, then to Sam, then nodded. “Yeah, let’s go and you can tell me all about the spell.”

“Excellent.” He grabbed his wallet and walked out of the door, locking it behind himself once they were out. More than anything else, he did not want to be there for whatever falling out was going on between those three boys.

“So, tell me everything,” Willow said as they walked. Giles glanced down at his paper and started at the beginning, telling Willow how the spell worked.

Once he’d gone over the ritual, Willow seemed quite calm, and very interested in the workings. “It doesn’t sound too horrible,” she said with a smile. “Workable even. So what are the ingredients?”

“Well, most of them are things we can get or I have,” Giles admitted. “There’s one item though, one thing I’m not sure how to get a hold of.” It was far out of his realm of expertise.

“Oh? What’s that?” Willow asked, looking up at him.

“The bone of a serial killer,” he said. “Of all the things…” he trailed off. “I’ve dealt with a certain number of unpleasant things, but this… I don’t even know where to start.”

“A bone?” Willow asked, frowning. “Specifically a serial killer? Any particular reason why?”

“It has to be from someone who has the blood of many on their hands. The magic that brought them here was of a holy nature, and the return has to be the direct opposite component wise. The coven is trying to see what they can do in England, they might be able to exhume a body over there and send me a bone. If they can’t…” Giles shook his head. He didn’t like to think about what he might have to do if they couldn’t.

“What?” Willow looked up at him, eyes wide. In the light, they looked like little emeralds and it made Giles smile. He hoped nothing in the world would take that brightness, that simplicity that was Willow Rosenburg out of her eyes.

“I don’t know what I’ll do to get this bone,” Giles admitted. “I could ask the Council, but… given our current history, I don’t think they’d listen to me, nor am I sure I want to beg like that.”

“Oh,” Willow said, looking back towards the sidewalk. “The Council.”

“Yes.”

They walked in silence for a time, then Willow shrugged. “You could ask, but if they say no, then we figure it out for ourselves anyway. And if you don’t want to ask, then don’t. I won’t tell Buffy if you think she’d be angry, but I don’t think she will be. She hates them too.”

“They could easily access a skeleton from their cemetery,” Giles said bitterly. “I can’t even believe that makes me jealous.”

“Well, we’ve always been away from the massive resources of the Council,” Willow said happily. “We’ve always figured our way through things, we’ll do it again this time. Besides, we might be fretting for nothing.” She reached out and lightly patted Giles’ arm. “The coven might come through.”

“Yes,” he nodded. “They might.” Giles didn’t think they would, but Willow’s optimism was hard to ignore, so he smiled and walked into the magic shop determined not to think about the possibility she was wrong.

 

31 - Dean

He was going to kill Cas. Or Spike, Dean hadn’t decided which he was more angry with at the moment. He stalked over to the bathroom door and turned the handle. It was locked! Growling a little under his breath, he pulled out his picks and opened the door with a forceful push, nearly falling over the writhing bodies on the ground.

His first thought was that Spike wasn’t breathing, and that was why Cas had his lips pressed to Spike’s mouth. “What the hell is going on here?!” he cried out. His heart was pounding in his throat and red blurred the edges of his vision. Who the hell had told Spike he could KISS Cas?

When Cas jerked up to look at Dean with wide blue eyes, Dean’s gaze went down to the hickeys on Cas’ shoulder. The button down shirt was opened completely, jacket on the ground and when Dean looked down he saw Cas’ hands splayed out across Spike’s nude chest. “You son of a bitch,” Dean snarled, looking from Cas’ kiss flushed lips and pink cheeks to Spike’s pale hands on Cas’ chest, then further down to Spike’s smirking face.

“Dean.” Cas’ voice was as inflectionless as ever, and his gaze floated over to the door. “I locked that.”

“Really?” Dean reached down and grabbed Cas by the scruff of his shirt, dragging him off of Spike. “Locking *me* out?”

“Hey,” Spike protested as his hands grasped at Cas’ body. Dean didn’t even bother to look at him, completely focused on Cas. How dare he, how dare he let undead scum touch him when he hadn’t ever let Dean… 

“I was under the impression that a locked door was a request for privacy,” Cas said. He didn’t bother to struggle out of Dean’s hands. Instead he stood and stared at Dean, head tilted to one side, confusion on his face.

“You let this piece of shit eat Sam!” Dean snarled and he resisted the urge to punch Cas. “Why the hell did you do that? And since when is it okay for an angel to make out with a demon?”

“He’s not exactly a demon,” Cas said, and Dean shook his head.

“Try again.” Dean’s hands clenched and he could feel his whole body trembling. Seeing that smooth expanse of skin marred from Spike’s mouth just made Dean more angry.

“He’s his own person, you know,” Spike said. “He can make his own decisions.” Dean let go of Cas and turned to Spike, who wasn’t even bothering to cover up, or hide the bulge in his pants.

“Evidently he can’t,” Dean said.

“He can. And he’s a marvelous kisser, did you teach him or is he a natural?” Spike asked.

Dean was straddling Spike’s hips and punching him before he even thought about it. Hearing the crack, he hauled off and punched him with his other fist. A sudden split in Spike’s lip started oozing blood.

Spike laughed and Cas touched Dean’s arm. “Dean,” Cas said. “He’s still recovering.”

“Then he can recover from this too,” Dean said. “I could see how you were nursing him back to health too. That’s just sick Cas.” Dean stood and rounded on Cas again. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing.”

“Something’s wrong with you.” Dean licked his lips and tried to calm himself down, but the open shirt just kept grating on his nerves.

[](http://imgur.com/A1uhfi0)

“No. I wanted to kiss him, and it was enjoyable, so I continued. I haven’t wanted to feel physical pleasure before, so I thought I may as well find out what my body was interested in.”

“The phrase is “making out” Cas,” Spike said.

“Making out,” Cas said instantly.

Dean was rounding on Spike again, yelling out, “Don’t tell him what to say!” as he did so.

“I’m just helping him,” Spike laughed, moving away from Dean a bit. “You don’t have to be angry with me for helping him.”

“I have every right to be angry with you! You ate my brother, you’re making out with my angel, you’re a sick asshole who should be put down!” Dean snarled, grabbing Spike’s legs and pulling him back so he could punch Spike again.

“Dean!” Cas said. Arms wrapped around him and tried to pull him from Spike. “Leave him alone.”

“Are you going to defend him now Cas? A vampire, someone you hardly know? Are you going to tell me he deserves to drink my brother’s blood? Sam’s blood!” Dean hollered, yanking Cas’ arms off of him so violently a fist connected with Cas’ jaw. Dead didn’t even flinch, he was so angry he didn’t even know where it started and where it ended anymore.

“No… I… Yes.” Cas frowned, one hand gingerly touching his cheek. “Spike deserves to live. He’s important to this world, he can’t die yet.”

“So you’re just going to have drunk Sam drip his life into this creature? When did you get so evil you can’t see where the lines are anymore Cas?” Dean asked. He couldn’t understand anymore what was going on in Cas’ head.

“I am not evil, I’m an angel.” There was a tremor to Cas’ voice and he stood up tall, blue eyes moving between Spike and Dean.

“Yeah, he’s really good. I bet, by the time we’re done, I’ll be singing hallelujah,” Spike laughed.

Dean reached down and grabbed Spike by the hair, yanking him up and standing as well. “You aren’t getting any more private time with Cas,” he said, punching Spike in the stomach. “Never again.” Another punch.

“Oh, you think?” Spike laughed.

“Dean!” Cas cried.

That evil smirk, Dean wanted to wipe it off Spike’s face forever. “You keep your hands off Cas!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it!” Spike smiled. There was another crack and Spike lifted up a fist, punching Dean back.

“Ow!” both Spike and Dean said at the same time. Blood rushed from Spike’s nose, yet he had his hand pressed to his head. Dean rubbed a hand absently on his cheek, barely noticing the throbbing. Spike hadn’t pulled his punch.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Spike asked. “I was going to touch all over Cas’ body, maybe suck his cock into my mouth. I’ve got no need to breathe so -” He didn’t finish the sentence, because the image sprang fully into Dean’s brain but it replaced Spike with Dean. Dean wanted Cas, and that was why he didn’t want Spike to touch him. No one should touch Cas but him.

He pulled out a knife and lunged at Spike, but Spike twisted his whole body suddenly, tossing Dean unceremoniously onto the ground. Spike wiped blood from his face and put up his fists. “Shall we tango?”

“Spike,” Cas said. “You are antagonizing him.”

“Yes,” Spike grinned.

“Then he just wants more,” Dean said. He launched himself at Spike, tackling him to the ground again and kneeing Spike in the balls.

“Oooh,” Spike groaned. He punched Dean again, crying out in pain as he did so and he didn’t seem to care.

“Dean!” Cas said. “Spike! Cut it out!” He sounded frantic, but Dean didn’t care. He was going to put this monster out of his misery, once and for all.

 

32 - Sam

“Dean!” “Leave him alone!” Laughter. Sounds mixing together, screaming, Dean’s voice, Cas, someone else? Sam groaned as his head pounded so much he didn’t even want to open his eyes. He had to though, right? Because there was arguing and he couldn’t sleep through that.

Cautiously he pried opened his eyes. The light wasn’t bright, thank goodness for that, but just seeing at all made his eyes water. His head was pounding and he felt light headed.

Taking a breath, he still heard yelling from the other room and he glanced down the hallway. His hands were shaking, and he took several deep breaths as his stomach rolled around unpleasantly.

“You keep your hands off Cas!” Dean’s voice came from the other room, and Sam pressed a hand to his head, trying to control the throbbing in his temples.

What was going on in the other room even? Placing one hand on the arm of the couch, Sam eased himself up onto his feet, carefully trying to stay steady. He felt bone weary, still a little drunk, and add the yelling voices to the mix, he just wanted to go upstairs and curl up in a ball to sleep some more. He couldn’t even remember everything he’d done, which was bad in a whole different way.

Standing for a few moments, he realized he was capable of standing, so he attempted a step. Not bad, he didn’t fall down, but he was wobbly, so he reached for the desk and used it to prop himself up. There was a wall not two feet from him, so he sort of lurched for it, lightly hitting the wall as he held himself up.

“Dean! Spike!” Cas cried, and suddenly Sam knew exactly what was going on. For some reason, Dean was fighting with Spike again. Sam couldn’t even entirely fault Dean for it. He looked down at his wrist, remembering feeding the vampire his blood, and he realized what that must mean to Dean. Cas and Sam giving blood to a killer, a monster, it would tear Dean up inside. Too bad, Sam had known what he was doing when he’d done it.

Well, mostly he’d known, but it had been enough. Sometimes Dean still treated Sam like a child, and he hated that. He hadn’t figured out how to keep Dean from doing it, so… he just had to deal, right? Well, that’s what he kept telling himself.

Finally making it through the hallway, he found he was more steady on his feet once he’d put them in front of each other a few times. When he reached the bathroom, he saw Cas holding onto Dean, who was punching Spike, who was in turn laughing. Laughing. Was this vampire just… masochistic or something?

“Dean,” Sam croaked the word out. His voice was barely working, and Dean couldn’t hear him over the sound of flesh against flesh so he took a breath and tried again. “Dean!” Still no answer, but Castiel did glance over at him, worry in his eyes.

Sighing, Sam walked in, and reached his hands around one of Dean’s arms, yanking him away from Spike. “Dean!” Sam shouted. He finally got his brother’s attention.

“Sam!” Dean’s eyes flickered over Sam, and Sam looked his brother up and down. One cheek had an impressive looking bruise forming and Dean’s lip was split in two places. “You idiot!”

“Yeah, right back at you,” Sam laughed. “What the hell are you doing?”

“This monster was making out with Cas!” Dean struggled to get out of Sam’s arms.

Sam raised his eyebrows at Cas, who shrugged and twitched his clothes into perfection. That was interesting. Sam knew that Cas cared for Dean, but maybe those unrequited feelings were being pushed off onto someone else.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Sam said with a glance at Dean, who hissed in a breath.

“It is so my business! He was *making* *out* with a *vampire*! That’s entirely our business.”

“It was hot too, wish I could continue,” Spike said from where he was standing against the wall and Dean kicked him.

Right. This couldn’t happen around Spike, he’d make things too difficult. “Out,” Sam said, shoving Dean towards the door. “Now.”

“I’m going to kill this sonofabitch,” Dean said. Sam stood up tall, blocking Dean from moving around him and back to Spike. Sometimes it was good to be the bigger brother, even if he’d never be the older one.

“No, I said out, I mean out.” This problem between Cas and Dean would never be solved if they kept dancing around it. It was time for some tough love.

“Oh I can’t wait to see how this goes down,” Spike said, and Sam turned to him.

“Oh no, you’re staying right here, not moving one inch, if I have to lock you in I will,” he said.

“You’re going to keep me in here while all the fun is happening out there?” Spike pouted. Sam shook his head. What was this guy’s problem?

“Yeah, I’m keeping you in here while we have a serious discussion among ourselves. Stay.” Sam pointed, and he closed the door firmly. He had a feeling that if Spike wanted to, he’d just come out, but maybe he’d wait. This conversation had to happen, and it had to happen now, because later might never happen with the way the two of them were acting.

Dean allowed himself to be pushed into the living room, and Cas stood a few feet away from both of them, looking uncertainly around the room. Sam leaned up against the wall and stared at both of them.

“You two have to come clean on a few things, or you’ll be at each others throats for… well, possibly forever. Okay?” Sam said, and Dean gave Cas a furtive glance.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dean said and Cas nodded.

“I too am unclear.”

Sam took a deep breath, closed his eyes and let it out. “Okay,” he said. He opened his eyes and stared at Cas, then Dean. “Dean. You like Cas. Romantically. And you get jealous when anyone threatens your chances with him, even though you don’t want to really admit that.”

“I do -” Dean began, but Sam talked right over him.

“Cas, you have feelings for Dean. Romantic feelings for Dean. I don’t know why you’re taking those out on Spike, but you are. It’s past time you knew that Dean liked you too. Dean, Cas likes you too. Kiss and make up,” Sam said, crossing his arms and staring at the two of them.

There was resounding silence for a few moments, during which Cas just stared off into space, and Dean made flustered noises, none of which became sentences. Then there was commentary from Spike, and for the first time, Sam wanted to kill him himself.

“And Sam loves both of you idiots!” Spike yelled. Sam’s face went bright red. Couldn’t that have just stayed a secret?

 

33 - Cas

“Dean loves you.” “Sam loves both of you.” “Dean and Sam love you.” The words ran around and around in Castiel’s head, and he found it difficult to think about anything else. Actually, he wasn’t thinking about anything else.

Sam and Dean loved him. Was it true? When he considered the way each of them acted around him, he thought that maybe he believed it. Yes, Dean often acted as Castiel had seen other men in love act. Possessive, and often pushed people away from Cas, sometimes he tried to tell Cas what he was feeling, or how he should react. Typical male behaviour when they cared for someone but were too embarrassed or too uncomfortable to speak about their feelings.

“You shouldn’t encourage him to think about feeling, he’s an angel for crying out loud,” Dean’s voice snapped through Castiel’s mind, but he mostly ignored it.

“You still denying it? Is that what’s going on?” Sam snapped.

“I -” But Castiel tuned them out again. He needed to focus on himself.

Sam… Sam was the strange one. He did seem to show signs that he cared about Castiel, but… no, he was always kind. Sam was sweet and caring, and had Castiel taken that in a friendship context when there was more behind it? Thinking back, Cas could remember times when Sam was excited to see Cas, or happy for him. Was it a little too much emotion? Was there a heavier meaning behind the glances and the looks and evident pleasure Sam took from working with Castiel?

He searched himself, and found that he enjoyed being with them. The three of them were close, like brothers in arms, and Castiel had had a fondness for them that got him in trouble.

Yes, he thought, those feelings he was having, they might just be love. And… if they were love then he should be spending this time, this closeness, with them, not with… Spike, or with… with other partners that Castiel was trying not to think about currently.

“I think we should have sex,” Castiel said, looking over at Dean and then to Sam.

Dean blinked and then rounded on his brother. “See, now you’ve broken him!”

“Who should have sex?” Sam asked with a frown.

“All of us. Together.” Yes, that would solidify the world, he thought. It would make it very true, or prove that it wasn’t true at all. Castiel thought he loved them though, and that thought was so profound that he was a little high from it.

Dean sputtered and then finally snapped, “Have you forgotten that Sam and I are brothers?”

Castiel turned to him with a frown. “No.”

“Then why would you suggest we… have sex… together!?”

“Is there something wrong with that?” Castiel asked. He turned to Sam then, feeling the confusion deep in his core.

“It’s not seen socially as being acceptable for people of the same family to have romantic relations with each other,” Sam clarified, and Castiel shrugged.

“It is of no consequence,” he said.

“No consequence?” Dean nearly shouted. “Of course it’s consequence! He’s my brother. That’s incest! That’s gross!” Dean’s face was very red.

“There is nothing in the bible, or God’s law, that states it is wrong for family to intermix sexually,” Castiel said. “If it is written so in earth's copies it is yet another error.”

Dean’s eyes got very wide, and then Sam said softly, “I don’t think he feels that way about me Cas. I… do love him, but…” he trailed off and Castiel looked over at him again.

“Oh.” Cas turned to Dean. “Do you not feel the love that flows between us?” He walked over to Dean, who took a step back before Cas was finally able to touch Dean’s arm. “I… was looking for this closeness with someone else, but I it was here, between you, and I, and Sam. I don’t want to have these feelings with someone else now that I know what it is.”

“Can I join in?” Spike said. He was in the hallway, leaning against the wall. Castiel frowned.

“I don’t think -” Cas began, but Dean interrupted him.

“You think we’d let you join in on us?” Dean snapped. “No one’s touching my brother or my angel in that way other than me ever again!”

Castiel smiled at Dean. “You have claimed us,” he said. “So, there should be sex.”

The phone rang before Dean got a chance to say anything more, and Castiel glared at it. He thought they were finally making some progress. It kept ringing, and Sam picked it up finally.

“Hello?” A pause. “Yes, this is Sam, I’m one of the people he’s trying to send home.” Sam frowned then. “Exhume the body of a serial killer?”

 

34 - Giles

When Giles and Willow returned to the house, Spike was no where to be seen, Castiel was sitting at the bar, and Sam and Dean were on the couch. The whole place resounded with silence, so he walked in and placed the brown bag on his desk, looking from one to the next.

Finally he said, “So, did someone die?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

“No,” Castiel frowned.

“So, bone from a serial killer?” Dean said, raising his eyebrows. “You need one? Not that hard to come by, as long as there is a body somewhere nearby.”

Willow closed the door and came closer. “You know how to get a bone from a serial killer?”

“I think digging is required,” Dean said.

“We’ve done a lot of digging in our line of work,” Sam said. “No biggie.”

Oh. Giles hadn’t thought of that. His eyes brightened as he considered that. The problem would be knowing where to find one and getting there. There were plenty of known serial killers, the question was whether or not there was one nearby. “That’s brilliant.”

“Yeah,” Willow said. “If you like digging. I can’t help with that at all.”

“It’s fine,” Dean shrugged. “Like Sam said, we’ve done a lot of digging. Tons of bodies.”

Giles frowned. “That sounds rather morbid actually.”

“Well.” Sam lightly hit his brother on the arm. “What he’s not telling you is that when we encounter spirits, we salt their bones and burn their bodies. That’s to send them on to the next world. Which is the reason why we’ve dug up a lot of graves. We’re not doing it for kicks.”

“I will have to default to your expertise in this matter,” Giles said. “I’ve only dug up two bodies in my life. Mostly I’m putting bodies in the ground, not the other way around.” He hadn’t buried many bodies, but sometimes it was necessary. And the demons… he’d had to deal with a lot of demon bodies in his time.

“Giles!” Willow grinned. “You’re such a rebel.”

Giles raised his eyebrows at Willow, but chose to ignore the comments. “The question is how do we find out where there is a body buried? Are they listed somewhere?”

Willow went to her bag with a grin. “I can look it up online.”

“Great,” Dean said. “Find the closest one, and we’ll hit that.”

She looked over at Dean with raised eyebrows and gave him a small smile. “Yeah, okay.”

“So, did you get a call from the coven then?” Giles asked Sam, finally realizing that they shouldn’t have known they needed this bone.

“Yes. I spoke with someone named Althanea?” he said and Giles nodded. “Right, she said they couldn’t get the body exhumed and I told her we’d figure it out. I think it really shouldn’t be a problem.”

Willow began typing on her laptop as Giles nodded at him. “Thank you,” Giles said. “I appreciate you speaking with her. I hope this works.”

“Me too,” Sam nodded.

“I’d like to get home someday soon,” Dean said.

“Oh,” Willow gasped, and Dean got up, coming over to her. Giles turned to her as well, as her eyes were wide.

“What?” Giles asked.

“Death row murderer given lethal injection,” she said, looking up at him. “LA, a day ago.”

“That’s only a few hours drive from here,” Giles said to Dean. He was looking up at Giles with curious eyes.

“Great,” Dean said with a nod.

“There’s just one problem,” Willow said. “He’s in a morgue, busy morgue, and we can’t get in there easily. I don’t think we can get to his body.”

“That’s easy,” Dean said. “You go in as cops.”

“You can’t just impersonate police officers!” Willow gasped. Then she turned to Giles. “Can you?”

“Well,” Giles fumbled, not sure how to go about answering that. He’d only impersonated the police once, and it was for Halloween.

“I do it all the time,” Dean said. “Sam and I have been FBI agents, police, homeland security, rangers…” he shrugged. “We’ve needed to get into all kinds of places with little to no questions.”

“Oh. You… you can do that? I don’t think that’s really, you know… legal. Or… um… is it right?” she looked back to Dean, eyes still wide.

“If you’re helping to save a whole town worth of people, is it good to pretend to be the good guys or get stopped at the door because you don’t have the right ID?” Dean asked and she frowned.

“That’s moon logic,” she said, but she looked back at her screen. “We’ll have to make you badges.”

“Yeah,” Dean nodded. “I can show you how to do that.” He looked over at the couch. “Sam could you…” he trailed off and walked over to his brother.

When Giles looked himself, he saw Sam passed out on the couch, sleeping peacefully. “He’s worn out, isn’t he?” Giles asked softly. If he could, he would let these boys rest for a week before moving on to their next mission. They reminded Giles of Buffy sometimes, needing rest and relaxation in order to function properly. They probably pushed themselves as hard as Buffy did.

“Yeah,” Dean nodded. “So, I think he should sleep. I’m going to need someone else to go with me.”

 

35 - Willow

Dean had been sitting next to Willow for the last half hour telling her what to do and she was getting more nervous, not less, as the time went by. His gaze was intense and even though he told her that this was a valuable skill to have, she just couldn’t imagine using it on a regular basis like he did. When the knock came on the door, she was so excited that she dropped everything to stare at it.

“I’ve got it,” Giles said as he opened the door. “Buffy,” he said with pleasure. “Please, come in, but be quiet, we’ve got someone sleeping on the couch.”

“Sure,” Buffy said. Willow looked over at her with a “Help me now!” grin. It was good to see Buffy. Buffy meant sanity, and possibly rescue.

“Hiya Buff,” Willow said. “How’d things go with Riley?” Willow had been worried for a little while.

“Oh, they went great,” Buffy said. Then she grinned more broadly. “Really great, I think we’re on an upswing.”

Willow squealed just a little and bounced in her seat. “That’s awesome!”

“I know!” Buffy smiled. Then she shook her head. “But not what I came here for. I was wondering how things were going, and if I should head back to school for the night?”

“How are you with corpses?” Dean asked, and Willow looked up at him in confusion.

“Um…” Buffy shrugged. “I make them all the time, so… good?”

“I think we’ve got our other police officer,” Dean said. He looked at Willow. “Do you have a small picture of her we can use?”

“Um… yeah, but… permission?” Willow squeaked, looking from Dean to Buffy, who was frowning.

“What’s going on?” Buffy asked and Dean crossed his arms.

“We have to get a bone from a serial killer. As fate would have it, one just died in LA,” he said.

“Go figure,” she said.

“We just need to go and grab it. Willow’s making fake ID’s, and I need someone to go as a cop with me. Since you won’t faint, aren’t too old, and can remember how to speak around authority figures, I think you’ll be perfect.”

“LA?” Buffy frowned, then she glanced at Willow. “I… should I go to LA?”

“Well, it shouldn’t be a long visit, and… you don’t have to look him up,” Willow said.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded. “I can just… he’d never… wait… dress up as a cop?” She shook her head and looked back at Dean. “Dress up as a cop?”

“It’s not nearly so hard as you think. You find the uniform, slip into it, walk out with the badge. Easy peasy,” Dean said. “I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

“You have?” Buffy said, voice way too interested. Willow was worried. Would Buffy be alright, pretending to be a law officer?

“Yeah. Mostly you walk around pretending you are in charge. From what I’ve seen so far of you, that doesn’t sound like it would be hard to do.” Flattery, Willow rolled her eyes and went back to the badges. Flattery would get Dean anywhere.

“Well,” Buffy seemed like she was eating it right up. Giles coughed delicately and Willow gave him a small smile.

“Great, so we need to get you a small picture to put on this badge.” He looked over Willow’s shoulder again and pointed out another mistake she was making.

“Okay,” Willow nodded, her heart beating much faster in her chest than it ought to be. She blamed it on nerves, and not the handsome man leaning over her.

They worked in mostly silence for a while, Dean interjecting comments and tricks here and there while Buffy looked through her wallet, when Willow finally stood up. “I need a break,” she said, walking away and towards the kitchen.

Buffy was right on her in a moment and she put her hands on Willow’s shoulders. “What’s going on?” Buffy asked.

“It’s too much pressure,” Willow admitted, feeling her fears well up inside her. “What if I do the wrong thing and you get caught because of it? What if Wolfram and Hart find out you’re there and they capture you or something worse? What if Angel finds out you’re there and he does something stupid? Buffy, all sorts of things could happen, and many of them could be my fault for not doing the right thing!” Willow grabbed both of Buffy’s arms and looked up at Buffy with wide eyes.

“You’re stressing out. You’re stressing *me* out,” Buffy said. “Relax, Dean won’t let anything happen to me, and I won’t let anything happen to him. If they find out we aren’t cops, we’ll just knock them out, take a bone and head home, no biggie.” The grin she gave Willow was so big and silly that Willow couldn’t help it, she started laughing.

Wrapping her arms around Buffy, she held her close and took several deep breaths. “I’m sorry Buffy, I’m just a scaredy cat, you know? I should be more bold than this, but… well, after what happened with Sam…” Willow trailed off and then took a breath, pulling away from Buffy. “We’ll talk, after they’re gone, okay?”

“Yeah, of course Will,” Buffy said, a frown on her face. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes. Everything’s fine. You go be a cop, and I’ll see you when you get back. Be safe.” Willow smiled and Buffy returned it. She hoped, more than anything, that she got a picture of Buffy in the uniform.

 

36 - Buffy

“So what is Willow so worried about?” Dean asked as he drove. Buffy was looking at herself on a cop badge and she wasn’t sure what she thought of that exactly. It afforded her some extra power, but it also kind of scared her. This was the future that so many people had expected for her in High School.

“What?” she asked, looking up from the ID and shaking her head. “Willow?”

“In LA, she seemed specifically worried about something,” Dean said. Buffy shrugged, trying not to think about Angel. Not thinking about him wasn’t the answer though, she’d been not thinking about him for months, but she couldn’t get him off her mind.

“Just… an old friend.” Buffy closed the ID and set it in her lap.

“An old friend? Sounded a little personal to be a friend exactly. An old flame maybe?”

“Can we not talk about Angel?” Buffy said, exasperated.

“Pretentious name,” Dean laughed.

“Oh for…” Buffy looked over at him and her frustration died at the grin on Dean’s face. There was something down to earth about it. She couldn’t help it, she laughed as well.

“So who was he?”

“My ex. We were really close, then things happened and we couldn’t be together, so he moved to LA.”

“To go to college?”

“No, he’s older, a lot older, and he has some sort of detective agency specializing in the weird stuff I deal with all the time,” Buffy admitted. “And it is a pretentious name.” She didn’t want to talk about what it meant, what it had stood for for over a hundred years.

“So this guy thinks he’s the man? But you were too good for him?” Dean pressed, and Buffy lightly hit his shoulder.

“I’m not talking about Angel with you,” she said. “It’s over, it’s done with.”

“Okay, okay.”

“Who was your last flame then, Dean Winchester?” she asked, and he frowned, all amusement gone.

“Right, I get it,” he said, so serious now that she knew what she’d asked had hit him deep.

“Sorry,” she said, and he shook his head.

“Her name was Lisa. We were… sort of living together, and I was helping to take care of her son. She’s dating someone else now though, and Ben… he wants me as a father, but I’m no good in that role.”

“Because why?” she asked, curious.

“Because I don’t have it in me to do that role. I live with monsters, chasing after them and killing them all the time. I can’t subject a twelve year old to that.”

“Oh. So you’re scared of hurting him, or of him getting hurt because of what you’re doing. Okay, that’s fair,” she nodded.

“It’s just… I think he might be my son. I mean, Lisa says he’s not, but he’s so like me, if I’d had a real childhood anyway, and…” Dean paused and looked over at Buffy. “Nevermind. We don’t discuss this ever again.”

Buffy raised her hands and grinned. “Who am I going to tell that would talk to you in a few days?” she pointed out.

“Point taken. Just, if you’re going to discuss my deep and highly personal life, wait until I’m gone.”

“Fine.”

The rest of the drive went fairly quickly and they didn’t say much else. When they got to the precinct, Dean pulled around to a corner and sat watching.

“Okay, we have to get in there, sneak to the lockers and secure our clothes. They’re usually around the back side and by the showers. I don’t think I’ve been in LA’s station, but I’ve been in many others. Just follow me, okay?”

Buffy nodded and they got out of the car, moving towards the back of the building. Getting inside was easy, Buffy just grabbed the knob and pulled it till it opened. 

Dean gave her a big grin. “Want to come back with us?”

“No thanks,” Buffy said.

Inside they carefully crept to the lockers, and Buffy was mildly disappointed at how easy it was to get inside without detection. She picked a locker at random, and quickly put herself into the uniform. Every day, if she had decided to, she could wear this uniform. Smoothing down the front of it, she looked in a mirror at herself and frowned. Nope, not fashionable enough. Just thinking of wearing the hat all day and what that would do to her hair made her shiver.

Dean was dressed and waiting for her when she came out, and once again, she had to admit he looked good. There was something about the way he stood when he was in it that took her breath away.

“You’re too handsome in that,” she hissed.

“Why are you whispering? We’re police, we have badges, let’s go,” he said. He walked back towards the back entrance they’d entered. “And thanks.”

“Sure,” she said. “Aren’t you going to reciprocate?”

“You want me to tell you you look hot in uniform?” he asked, and thinking about that, she shook her head.

“No. Actually, I don’t.” What a horrible image that was. Buffy in uniform, getting hit on by skeezy old men. Ugh.

Dean laughed and walked right out the door and to a police car. He looked around, then carefully tried the knob, slipping a piece of metal into the window area.

“You’ve done this before?” Buffy asked nervously as she looked around to make sure they weren’t being watched.

“It’s what I do,” he murmured, and then finally he lifted the piece of metal and there was a clicking sound. “I’ve had lots of practice.”

“Junior thief in action. So glad I’m available to witness this,” she joked.

He opened the door and got in. Buffy went to the other door and he unlocked it for her. “Yep,” he said, closing his door and then beginning to hotwire the car. “If I thought I could teach you how to do this, I would totally do that, but it would take too long, and we need to get going.”

She watched him, fascinated, as he played with wires, and when the car finally roared to life, she thought it was the most amazing sound in the world. That someone could so easily handle the mechanics of a vehicle like that… it reminded her of when she fought. She knew the body’s weaknesses, and exploited them, and he knew the car’s weaknesses and did the same.

“That was too cool,” she said.

“Thanks,” he grinned, driving them out and to the morgue.

She stood tall as they introduced themselves to the workers and they took the badge numbers from both Buffy and Dean. For a few moments she thought they were going to look them up right away, but instead, they lead them to the room with all the bodies and opened up one, setting the clipboard down nearby.

“Do you need anything?” the man asked, and Dean shook his head.

“Just a few moments, thanks,” he said, and the guy nodded, leaving them.

“How do you do that?” Buffy asked with a deep breath. “I was sure he’d realize I had no idea what I was doing.”

“If he did, I’d have called you a rookie. Come on, we need a bone.” He pulled back the sheet from the head and took a look. “I don’t suppose a tooth counts?”

“I don’t think it’s enough bone?” she asked, lifting the sheet from the other end. “Maybe we can get a toe or something,” she suggested.

“You’re really not grossed out by this?” he asked. He walked to the examining table and grabbed a pair of gloves.

“Should I be? I’ve been walking in and out of morgues for years,” she said as she watched him work.

“Yeah, it get’s to be old hat, doesn’t it? It’s better to take something from inside. He’s already been dissected, so we just pull the sewing out, and cut some bone off the rib.”

“The fighting can get way too quick,” she agreed. His hands moved quickly and Buffy was a little impressed he was so used to doing this work. Was that what she had in her future? Stealing from cadavers? Only time would tell.

“That stinks,” she said as she crinkled her nose.

“Could be worse,” he said.

“How?”

“He could still be alive.”

She stared at him for several moments, then she shivered. “That’s so gross.”

“I’ve had practice honing my disgusting tales to tell young girls,” he said. Dean took the long piece of rib and put it into a plastic bag, pocketing it before redoing the body’s lacing.

Buffy put the sheet back over the body as Dean took off his gloves and cleaned up the equipment he’d used. This visit had been strange, but she’d learned a few things, and there were some good moments that came from it so Buffy wouldn’t complain.

 

37 - Dean

They hadn’t bothered to stop and drop off their uniforms. Dean figured they ought to get back home as quickly as possible, so they parked the squad car a block from precinct and walked to the car they’d taken in. Then Dean tossed his jacket over the uniform and tilted the rear mirror up so Buffy could change in the back of the car.

The long stretch of road in front of him gave him nothing to do but think, and since Buffy wasn’t talking to him he allowed his mind to wander. Which of course meant it wandered to Cas and Sam.

He’d had a huge argument with Sam, about how Sam was wrong, he didn’t love Cas, and Sam had yelled back about how it was so obvious if he’d just stop thinking about their father’s rules about being a man for a moment. Dean had called Sam a bitch, Sam had called him a jerk, and it hadn’t made things better. The problem was, Dean knew he had feelings for his brother, he just didn’t want to face them, because if he did, didn’t that make him horrible somehow?

Except then there’d been Cas, and his little, let’s all have sex, thing which had totally made everything worse. Dean had so much respect for Cas, and he didn’t want to screw that up. What if Cas was right though, and they all did love each other? Should he abandon that kind of intimacy just because he was scared?

So he supposed it was only natural that he was thinking he might be willing to give it a shot. When they got home. After some more talking, maybe. Maybe not. His heart pounded hard in his chest as he considered being intimate with Sam and Cas. It was intimidating, but he wanted to try. He had to tell them he wanted to try.

Pulling into the parking lot by Giles’ apartment, he looked over at Buffy. “You ready to say goodbye?” he asked with a grin.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Not because I don’t like you, but because I think your world is missing you. I think… this one needs me. I don’t offer it much, but what I do offer is necessary.” She smiled and lightly patted Dean’s arm. “And you… you’re necessary to that world. So let’s get you home.”

He nodded and slipped out of the car. Wise for her years? Maybe, but she’d been fighting the good fight for five or six years, so… she probably earned that wisdom.

When they got in, the first thing Dean noticed was that Sam wasn’t on the couch anymore, and the downstairs was filled with people. Everyone he’d met, excluding Riley, was there. They were all standing around the desk, paper out in front of them. Raising his eyebrows as they looked up at Buffy and Dean, Dean closed the door and reached into his pocket.

“Bone,” he proclaimed.

Buffy walked over to the group. “What’s up?” she asked.

“We can do the ritual tonight,” Giles said. “We won’t have a full circle, but that’s alright, we’ll use what we have and make the best of it.”

“I offered to get demonic help for a full circle, but Giles said no,” Anya said with a shrug.

“I would prefer not to have to pay for help,” Giles glared, and Anya shrugged again.

“See?” she said.

“I would call in people from work,” Xander said. “But I wouldn’t know how to explain this to them even if I wanted to.”

“We could ask Riley,” Willow started. “But I didn’t know if you wanted to test that avenue. There is one person from my Wicca group, but I don’t want to wake her if I don’t have to.” There was something in they way Willow said that that made Dean grin. Whoever this girl was, she wasn’t just from Willow’s group. Dean would bet money on hot lesbian makeouts.

Buffy looked up at Giles. “Can this work?”

“Well, I certainly hope so,” he said with a nod. He pulled his glasses off and beginning to clean them. It seemed to be a nervous tick, so Giles was worried about something, that was certain. Whatever it was, it could be as simple as he didn’t like to see the bone, or as complex as without thirteen people it wouldn’t work.

“Me too,” Dean admitted.

“It’ll be fine,” Xander said, waving his hand. “Just some scripted words and you’ll be home.” He grinned. “No muss, no fuss.”

“This is plenty of fuss,” Dean said, waving around the room. “Is everyone going to help?”

“Even me,” Spike said, and Dean turned quickly to see him leaning in the hallway leading to the bathroom.

“You must be joking,” Dean said. “NOt you too.”

“His energy should help tie in the murderer’s bone to the earthy nature of the rest of the ritual.” Giles shrugged. “Besides, after all the trouble he’s caused you, I figured he could do something to make it up to you. If he screws this up, I’m going to let Xander kill him.”

“I admit, I’m kind of hoping he screws up,” Xander said, and when Dean glanced at him, Xander was grinning.

“If we’re ready to do this,” Giles said, looking up at them. “Then I think we should go now.”

“Yes.” Cas’ voice came from behind Dean and when he turned to look at Cas, he felt a strange rush of heat in his stomach. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll go get Sam, where is Sam?” Dean asked as he looked around again. Giles waved towards the stairs.

“Upstairs. We’ll get things packed,” Giles said. He looked up at Dean and then nodded.

“Right.” Dean made his way up to where Sam was sleeping quickly, and lightly shook Sam’s arm.

“Ngh,” Sam mumbled, and Dean smiled. When he slept, Sam always slept deeply.

“Sammy,” Dean said. “Wake up, it’s time to go home.”

Slowly, Sam cracked his eyes open. “Dean?” he mumbled, and Dean nodded his head.

“Yeah Sammy. Home, time to go.”

He groaned and blinked several times. “We have to get a bone though, don’t we?”

“Buffy and I went,” Dean said with a grin. “She’s great as a cop. I thought you could use the rest.”

Slowly Sam stood up, and he wiped at his eyes a few times before focusing on Dean. “Oh.” There was more silence, then he took a deep breath. “We’re going home now?”

“Yep. They say they have the spell ready, and they’re getting packed up right now.” Dean was both happy and a little sad about that. He enjoyed spending time with Buffy and thought she could be a real friend, but honestly, it was easier to see witches as evil rather than ambiguously good.

“Okay,” Sam nodded, stretching. “I guess we go then.”

“Yeah, we go.”

There was a moment of silence, then Sam focused completely on Dean. “Are we good Dean?” he asked, and Dean’s heart tried to beat out of his chest.

“We’re good Sammy,” he said with a nod. “More talking when we’re home, okay?”

“Okay.”

 

38 - Sam

The spell itself went off without a hitch, which was surprising but nice. Shifting from Buffy’s world to their own was a little jarring, but Sam thought it was pretty similar to the trip in. Dean and Cas had the biggest goodbyes, a hug to Buffy and a pat on the shoulder to Giles from Dean, and Cas had gotten a tongue kiss from Spike, that resulted in Dean punching Spike again, and a hug from Willow. Sam’s goodbye’s were short and sweet, a small smile and nod from Giles was all that came his way, and Sam figured that was because he hadn’t gotten attached to these people really.

It made him wonder if he’d started doing that. Disconnecting from other people in order to protect himself since he didn’t really stick around for very long. He always thought he was the one who was the most involved with people and their problems. Leaving Buffy and her friends made him question himself though. What he did know was he was very attached to Dean and Cas, which had him thinking he might be connecting inappropriately. Probably.

They looked around Bobby’s. The window was broken and the place was just as ransacked as it had been before they’d left. They’d only been gone a few days, but coming back to the exact place they’d left made him feel like it had been longer.

That was when he realized that Cas had promised them some kind of knowledge when they returned, so he turned to Cas. “What were you going to tell us?”

Dean looked over at him a little startled, as did Cas. “After all this, the first thing you want to ask me about is what I had come here to tell you in the beginning?” Cas asked, and Sam nodded.

“You came here because something changed, and it was a big enough deal that you tell us that you came here even though you had pressing matters on your hands. So yeah Cas,” Sam put his hands on his hips. “I want to know.”

“Good, Cassie,” Balthazar’s voice cut into the conversation. “I was hoping you were alright.”

Everyone turned to him, and Sam thought Dean might try to punch him. “Yes,” Castiel said. “We survived. Were you successful?”

“I was.” Balthazar looked around, then smirked. “It seems I interrupted something. You have them, where you need them. Don’t worry, I’ll guard until you can… spare us a moment.”

“Thank you Balthazar,” Cas said.

“Sure, sure.” Then he was gone again, and Sam felt like there should be bells put on angels.

Cas looked over at Dean, who seemed a little shook up, but Dean nodded at Cas. Taking a deep breath, Cas walked away from them and took a deep breath. “You should probably be seated for this,” Cas said, moving over to Bobby’s desk and sitting on the edge of it. “Because I am going to tell you things you are not going to be happy with me about.”

Sam went over to one of the easy chairs and sat, Dean took the couch. “Go for it,” Dean encouraged.

Not keeping his gaze on Sam or Dean, Cas looked all around, and then took another deep breath. “Crowley’s alive,” he said, and a rush of uncertainty and anger went through Sam.

“What?” Dean beat him to the punch. “What do you mean Crowley’s still alive? You burned his bones!”

“No, I burnt bones so it would look like Crowley had died, so he would be forced to work in silence, and I hoped you wouldn’t find out because we’re working together.” Cas held up his hands before Dean got the chance to say anything else, and Sam tried to process the whole situation.

Cas was working with the enemy, and he’d lied to both of them, for months. Why would he do that? What was he gaining exactly?

“Before you get angry with me, please allow me the chance to explain. You see… the battle with Raphael is not going very well…”

“What changed Cas?” Sam asked when the tale ended. He wanted to give Cas a hug and tell him they’d figure it out, but first he had to know what had made Cas finally see reason. Cas looked right at him, gaze locked.

“Crowley… he… attempted sexual activities with me,” Cas said, swallowing. “I wasn’t interested, and he pressed, but when I disappeared, I thought about things. I’m not… I don’t like what we’re doing. I feel as though the ends should justify the means, but the more time I spend doing this, the less I feel as though what I’m doing is right. I wanted to discuss what was happening with you, and see…” he glanced over at Dean. “If you would still help me, as you have always helped the rest of the world.”

“Cas,” Dean groaned. “Why didn’t you come to me before? I would have helped you with Raphael any way that I could, you know that.”

“You deserved a rest,” Cas said. Sam stood up, going over to Cas and putting his hands on Cas’ shoulders. If it was one thing Sam knew, it was how to comfort someone in pain.

“Cas, we’re always on your side. Even if it seems like we’re doing things contrary to what you wish, it is because we want to help you, and we’re trying to do what’s best. You should have asked us right away. Of course we’ll help. Right Dean?” Sam said, looking over at Dean.

“Yeah Sam,” Dean said, standing up himself and coming over to put a hand on Cas’ shoulder. “You just needed to ask Cas. We’re not good at knowing instantly that someone needs us, and we often don’t know what we’re doing, but we always figure something out. These God Weapons, can humans use them?”

Cas didn’t say anything, he just grabbed hold of Dean’s shirt and pulled him close, pressing his lips against Dean’s in a fierce kiss. Sam’s heart constricted painfully as he watched the two of them kiss. Of course it would end with Dean and Cas, but for a time, he’d hoped.

 

39 - Castiel

It was perfect. The first melding of his lips against Dean’s, even if Dean was completely still in shock for a moment. Opening his mouth, he allowed his tongue to sweep out across Dean’s lips. He wanted them, both of them, and Cas knew he might have to fight for that. He’d do it.

Dean finally melted against him, arms wrapping around Cas and holding him close. Opening his mouth to allow Cas inside, their tongues swirled around each other, and heat raced through Cas’ body, heading straight down.

By the time they pulled away for air, Cas’ face was hot and his slacks were uncomfortably tight. He wanted that same sort of intimacy with Sam, but when he turned to Sam, he was walking away.

Cas flew in front of Sam with a frown on his face. “Don’t you want this too?” Cas asked, brows furrowing together.

Sam’s eyes widened. “You… are you sure? I mean, I know your connection with Dean is -” but Cas cut him off by standing on his toes and smashing their mouth’s together.

This was a little more awkward, because Sam had been talking when Cas started the kiss, but Sam held Cas tightly right away, mouth opening before Cas’ did. It was a different kind of kiss, more lazy, more exploratory, less like a fight for dominance like it had been with Dean. Cas liked both of them.

Now that Cas knew what he wanted, and that both of them were interested in him, he was going to take them. All night. All week. Maybe he’d drop by every night for a month? Cas wanted to know every secret, every touch that brought shivers and moans. If he’d learned nothing else from Spike, he’d learned that there was nothing wrong with wanting.

A small moan escaped from Sam’s mouth, and Cas felt Dean press against his back, hands running up his sides, then down Sam’s sides. It felt wonderful, and Sam ground his hips into Cas, his hard length sending sparks across Cas. He wanted more touching, and less clothes.

He pulled away then and took a deep breath. “I want you both. Together, with me, all at once. Please?” he asked, looking up into Sam’s eyes, and then twisting his head to look at Dean. “Please?” he asked again.

“You sure Cas?” Dean asked, and he shivered a little. “We can’t back away from this. I mean…” he took a deep breath. “This kind of… scares me. The Sam thing, the you thing, but I’m willing to try. You gotta… be slow with me.”

“Yes,” Cas nodded, his heart swelling. The grace inside him was thrumming with the force of emotions he had for Sam and Dean.

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to have me in order to have Cas,” Sam said. He tried to back away, but Dean held his shirt tightly in his hands.

“I don’t,” Dean said. Cas closed his eyes and drank the power of emotion, allowing their souls to wash over him. He hadn’t felt this kind of power in two days, and it was wonderful.

For several moments there was silence, and then Sam finally whispered, “Okay.”

That was it, they separated, and when Cas looked between the two of them there was an understanding that didn’t need said. They were already so close, how had they never crossed that line before?

“Bedroom?” Cas asked, and Dean nodded, taking one of Cas’ hands in his and walking towards the stairs. Cas reached for one of Sam’s hands and the fingers laced together. It was a current, starting from Dean, rushing through Cas and moving on to Sam. They were connected.

There was a queen in one of the spare rooms, from the days when the boys would get hurt and watch over each other. It didn’t get used much anymore, but Cas dusted it off with a light flap of his wings. The power inside himself felt so good, he was practically vibrating with it.

Dean walked over to the bed and placed a hand on the comforter, letting go of Cas’ hand. The connection between them lightened, and Cas was glad because he would get dizzy if it kept up for much longer. He turned towards them and looked around the room.

“Well,” Dean said.

“Yes,” Cas nodded. He reached his hands up and took off the trench coat. Sam took it from him and draped it across one of the chairs, and Dean was at him then, taking the jacket off.

Between the two of them they undressed him, and the care and attention had Cas’ mind reeling. He was important to these two, important and loved. That was so obvious that Cas thought he’d never forget this night.

When he was naked, he reached for Dean’s jacket, and the process repeated. Sam helped Cas get Dean nude, Dean helped Cas get Sam nude, and then there was a pause where everyone just looked at each other. Dean’s dick was half hard, his breath coming in short pants as he looked between Sam and Cas. Sam was fully hard, the long length bobbing as he finally moved to the bed, slipping on it and reaching out for both of them.

For his part, Cas was painfully hard, leaking already even though cold air was brushing against his skin. Allowing Sam to pull him onto the bed, he slid against Sam’s body, kissing Sam again as Dean lay across the other side. When Cas looked at Dean, he was kissing Sam’s chest, occasionally licking the skin. That looked like fun.

He kissed down Sam’s chin, sucked at a nipple at the same time Dean did, then kissed Dean. The kiss was sloppy, tongues swirling around each other as they touched Sam under them.

With a surge, Sam broke the two of them up and tackled Dean onto his back. Cas smiled as Sam kissed Dean, sucked down his neck, bit into the flesh on Dean’s shoulder, making Dean arch up and cry out. Cas breathed in the pleasure and then kissed down Dean’s side, licking across his hip. Dean’s dick was throbbing fully hard in front of Cas’ eyes and his mouth watered. He wanted that.

Cas kissed up the length and then licked the tip. Salty, bitter, interesting tastes, and Cas decided he could grow to get used to it. He opened his mouth and started sucking Dean into his mouth. Cas was sure he wasn’t very good at this, but when he looked up he saw Sam, sucking and biting at Dean’s nipple, Dean’s hand between Sam’s legs, stroking him. The moans in the room made Cas light headed and he opened his mouth further, pushing his head down to take Dean deep into his throat.

A hand grabbed at Cas’ hair and shook on his head at the same time that Dean made a strangled noise. Slowly, Cas brought his head off of Dean. He kissed the tip and licked more precome off before speaking.

“I want…” Cas breathed. “You to come inside me Dean.” Dean groaned and his fingers twitched in Cas’ hair.

“Yeah Cas?” Sam asked, and he met Cas’ gaze, licking his lips.

“Yes,” Cas nodded.

“Okay,” Dean finally managed to say. Sam sat back and Dean struggled up. “But you’re so going to finish that sometime.”

“Yes,” Cas nodded. “I’d like that.”

He was on his back a moment later, kissing Sam as Dean spread Cas’ legs. Moaning into Sam’s mouth, Cas tried to relax his body when one slick finger pressed against his hole. He knew the mechanics, but he’d never thought about what it would be like to use them.

When the finger finally entered him, Cas instantly tightened up, but the soothing hands on his stomach and chest helped him relax. Sam continued to kiss him as Dean slipped the finger all the way inside him.

It was bliss, the lack of oxygen from kissing, the finger filling him up inside, the way his grace was wildly accepting the power from the two men, and Cas thought he might come just from this. When the second finger entered him he broke away from Sam with a cry, feet digging into the bed.

“Dean!” he cried. “Sam! Yes… oh, God, yes!”

“Do you hear that?” Sam asked.

“We made him swear to God,” Dean chuckled.

Cas couldn’t hardly focus on what they were saying, because Dean added another finger and he could feel them scissoring inside him, stretching him wide open. It was good, it was so good, and Cas wanted more. “Dean,” he groaned. “Dean…. Dean, I want…”

“I know what you want,” Dean said. “I’m just not sure you’re ready.”

“I am, I am,” Cas nodded. Sam moved away and Cas could look down and into emerald eyes. Eyes that knew him, so intimately now, but had always known him. Cas had mended that face, he’d put that soul into Dean and healed that body and even now he knew every bone Dean had broken, because he’d healed them all.

“Okay Cas,” Dean said, finally pulling his fingers out. “Okay.” He draped Cas’ legs over his own and Cas could feel the first nudge of hard flesh at his hole. “If you’re ready.”

“I’m ready,” Cas said with a nod. “I’m ready.”

Dean held Cas’ gaze as he pushed inside. He went slow, but didn’t stop until he was fully inside. Cas grabbed Dean’s arms and held onto them.

“Yeah Cas,” Dean said. “Yeah.” Then his eyes went wide and he twisted his head to look over his shoulder. “Sam? What are you…” then he moaned.

“I’m getting you ready,” Sam said, voice low. “You’re going to be so beautiful between us Dean.”

“Oh God,” Dean moaned, and Cas watched as Sam wrapped one hand around Cas’ dick, slowly running up and down it as the other one was at Dean’s hole.

Dean moved in and out only a few times as Sam prepared him, and then Sam was behind him, and Cas could look up at both of them. His heart hurt, and his eyes found green ones, then hazel ones, and he smiled.

“Yes,” he said as Sam’s hands wrapped over Cas’ and he pushed into Dean.

They were still for only a moment before the moving started in earnest. Each thrust made Cas cry out, Dean so deep inside him, Sam inside Dean. The connection was made again, and when Cas came he screamed out.

Dean and Sam came at the same time, Cas’ body filling up and the feeling was wonderful. Suddenly he knew why humans had sex. Skin on skin was wonderful, but besides that there was… just something amazing about being so close to someone else. He thought he could get drunk off of it.

He wasn’t really aware of Dean slipping out of him, nor was he aware of being tucked in between Dean and Sam. The next thing he knew was that he was warm and happy and there was a sheet over them. Cas didn’t need to sleep, but he couldn’t think of a single reason why he should move from where he was.

The End.


End file.
